OWNERSHIP STUDIES - THE DATA SOURCE DOES MATTER

We examine the fit between the ownership data provided by four surroga te databases and the data collected from proxy statements. We discover an unambiguous pecking order among the surrogates relative to the ben chmark ownership statistics of corporate proxy statements. Corporate T ext is first, followed in descending order by Compact Disclosure, Valu e Line, and Spectrum. Further tests show that reporting discrepancies in the Value Line and Spectrum databases could affect economic inferen ces drawn from regressions using their ownership data. A field guide d escribing each data source's reporting conventions, formats, and strat egies for data aggregation may be downloaded from the Journal of Finan cial and Quantitative Analysis' web site (http://weber.u.washington.ed u/(similar to)jfqa/hold/andepdx.pdf).