CBS Research Grid
The research that drives our world class curriculum and showcases our exemplary faculty is of critical importance. From case studies to published works, researchers need access to the best tools and data that our institution can provide. Information Technology Group offers a state-of-art research server, known as CBS Research Grid, to facilitate academic research by faculty and doctoral students at the Columbia Business School. The server is a grid system based on advanced Dell servers, EMC storage, Sun grid engine, and Linux OS. The server hosts a comprehensive set of current and historical economic/financial databases and a large collection of statistic/mathematic software programs. Covered are some of the following subjects which are aimed to assist you in getting started with the new server:
- Economic/Financial Databases
- Statistic/Mathematic Software Programs
- CBS Research Wiki
- How to Get Help?
Economic/Financial Databases
The new server hosts a comprehensive set of current and historical financial and economic databases. The server offers COMPUSTAT and CRSP which cover 30,000 companies and include security prices and trading volume, income, and balance sheet items. It includes I/B/E/S' analyst projections for earnings and sales. It provides stock market indices, bond prices and interest rates, mutual fund and stock ownership information, options data, and a wide array of macroeconomic time series. It also offers international data, and marketing and industry reports. The following is a quick reference chart to the most commonly used data.
For a comprehensive list and description of files and variables in databases on the new server, please click here: Comprehensive list of database families and files.
| DATA | DISTRIBUTOR | DATA SETS |
| Balance sheets, income statements and other company-based financial items | COMPUSTAT | Industrial, Full Coverage, Research, and Backdata Annual/Quarterly, Business Industry Segments Price, Dividends, Earnings |
| Stock prices and returns | CRSP | Monthly / Daily Stock Files, Indices files |
| Intraday stock price bid and ask quotes | TAQ | Trades and Quotes |
| Analysts Estimates | IBES | Daily Detailed History, Summary History |
| U.S. Treasury interest rates | CRSP | Bonds, Bills, and Inflation files |
| Bank financials | COMPUSTAT | Bank Annual / Quarterly |
| Banking industry conditions | FDIC | All files |
| U.S. Macro Economics | Global Insight (formerly DRI) | Annual, Quarterly and, Monthly BASIC Economics |
| International Economics | Global Insight (formerly DRI) | Annual, Quarterly and, Monthly BASIC Economics |
| International Firm-level data | COMPUSTAT/Global Vantage | Annual |
| Options | Optionmetrics | Daily |
| Executive Compensation | COMPUSTAT/Execcomp | Annual |
| GSL - GNU Scientific Library | GNU General Public License | All files |
Statistics/Mathematics Software Programs
The software programs on CBS Research Grid include the most of the commonly used statistical (e.g., SAS, GAUSS, R, and STATA), mathematical (e.g., Matlab and Mathematica), and optimization (e.g., CPLEX) software applications. It also include C, Fortran, Java, and NAG compilers. The following is a quick reference chart to the software applications. For more detailed information and instruction on how to use them on CBS faculty Grid, please click on the names of software application in the following list.
| Name of Software Applications | Publisher | Function |
| CPLEX | CPLEX Optimization, Inc. | A tool for solving linear optimization problems |
| EVENTUS | Cowan faculty LC | Event study and testing tools based on SAS and CRSP database |
| GAUSS | Aptech system Inc. | Mathematical and statistical analysis tools |
| MATHEMATICA | Wolfram faculty | Software system for math and science |
| MATLAB | Mathworks Inc. | Mathematical computation, analysis, visualization |
| NAG Libraries | Numerical Algorithms Group | Callable numerical and statistic sub-routine libraries |
| R | Free software | Software environment for statistical computing and graphics |
| SAS | SAS Institute, Inc. | Database management and statistic analysis |
| STATA | StataCorp | Data management and statistic analysis |
| Stat/Transfer | Circle Systems | A tool for converting data between software applications |
| C, C++, FORTRAN, Java Compilers | Compilers | |
Additional Storage Options
Periodically, researchers require additional storage for their research needs that exceed the standard allotted storage(Faculty 8 GBs, PHD students 4 GBs). Contingent on available storage capacity, ITG can provide additional storage on a temporary basis for up to 30 days at no charge.
For incremental storage needs that exceed 30 days, researchers will be charged $0.10 cents per GB per month ($1.20 per year per GB). One Terabyte(1,000 GBs) of storage will cost $1,200 per year. To request additional storage, please contact your faculty support specialist.
How to Get Help
The Information Technology Group is your primary source of IT support at Columbia Business School. Please contact us at researchsupport@gsb.columbia.edu for issures related CBS Research Grid. We respond to your email within 24 hours.
