When does Compustat data become publicly available?

[Martijn Kreft]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to merge CRSP and Compustat data. But in order to check whether Compustat variables have any influence on the CRSP returns, I need to know when the Compustat is publicly available approximately. I do not need to know the date exactly, but an approximation would be nice. Compustat gives the variable datadate. I think this is the date for which the values are 'measured'? I use quarterly data for compustat and monthly for CRSP btw. Could I just lag the Compustat variables? And how many months lag would you suggest? 1,2,3? Thanks for your help!

[Jared Greathouse]

🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷* ♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️🤷*♂️ I don't know. Does their website say?

[Daniel Feenberg]

Compustat data comes from publicly available sources. I doubt that the date Compustat makes it convenient for analysis is very significant event for stock prices. Surely the date the company or the SEC makes it public is the relevant date.

[Martijn Kreft]

Compustat data comes from publicly available sources. I doubt that the date Compustat makes it convenient for analysis is very significant event for stock prices. Surely the date the company or the SEC makes it public is the relevant date.

Thanks for your answer and sorry for the late reply. What I meant is that the data is about a certain period, but is reported only after that period. So how much is the delay between the fact and the reporting of the fact. I decided to use a lag of 3 months. So if the first quarter ends at the end of March, then I will only consider the first quarter data in June. Sometimes it is released sooner, but I am trying to stay on the conservative side here.