Our Resource of the Month choice for February

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Each month, one of our Subject Librarians chooses an electronic resource which they feel will be of interest to you.

February’s Resource of the Month has been selected by John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian and Subject Consultant for Economics and Sociology.

A graphic of an open laptop, against a purple background. On the screen are the words 'February Resource of the Month.'

John’s choice is the Global Financial Database. It was chosen because it is a source for historical stock market, financial, and economic data unavailable from few other online sources.

An open laptop on a desk. The words 'Global Financial Database' are on the screen. To the right is a cup of coffee. To the left is a note pad and pen.

Resource Overview

The Global Financial Database (GFD) provides long-range historical financial data on stocks, bonds, bills and other instruments, covering approximately 200 countries from the early modern period to the present. Data is provided in ASCII and Excel formats.

Financial and economic data series are assigned nine metadata descriptors: Series ID; Description; Start date; End date/most recent; Periodicity; Country/territory; Currency; Series type (e.g. government bond yields) and GFD sector designation (e.g. equity). Series include:

  • Asset Allocation from the 1800s to present
  • Equities from 1694 to present
  • Economic, commodity and exchange rate data from 1200 to present
  • Fixed income and inflation from the late 13th century to present
  • National accounts and GDP from 1790 to present

The GFD uses a search platform called ‘Finaeon’. User guides and tutorials on the use of the database are provided by GFD on Youtube.

Where can you access the resource

The Global Financial Database (GFD) can be accessed via SOLO.

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