A Novel Algorithm for Generating GVKEY-CIK Link Table

Chu, K.C. Kenneth; Chen, Sipeng; Leung, Tommy

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3530613

A Novel Algorithm for Generating GVKEY-CIK Link Table

K.C. Kenneth CHU, Sipeng CHEN, and Tommy Leung (2020) A Novel Algorithm for Generating GVKEY-CIK Link Table. Journal of Information Systems In-Press.

DOI: 10.2308/isys-18-068

33 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2020

See all articles by K.C. Kenneth Chu

K.C. Kenneth Chu

Hong Kong Polytechnic University - School of Accounting and Finance

Sipeng Chen

Hong Kong Polytechnic University - School of Accounting and Finance

Tommy Leung

The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong - Department of Accountancy

Date Written: May 2020

Abstract

This paper presents a do-it-yourself algorithm to generate the historical GVKEY-CIK link table. The proposed algorithm features to pre-classify sample data into different treatment subgroups and utilizes historical firm information available from the source data to increase (reduce) matching efficiency (errors). Simulation results show that our algorithm is superior to applying only conventional name matching operations over the whole sample: 57.5 percent of the overall matching results are error-free ex-ante, and for the remaining 42.5 percent of data, records without Type I errors (with Type II errors) increase (decrease) by 34.0 percent (59.4 percent) when the optimal threshold is used.

Keywords: Compustat, EDGAR, 10-K, Link Table

JEL Classification: C89, M40, G10, G18

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Chu, Kenneth and Chen, Sipeng and Leung, Tommy, A Novel Algorithm for Generating GVKEY-CIK Link Table (May 2020). K.C. Kenneth CHU, Sipeng CHEN, and Tommy Leung (2020) A Novel Algorithm for Generating GVKEY-CIK Link Table. Journal of Information Systems In-Press. , DOI: 10.2308/isys-18-068, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3530613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3530613