Taking snapshots of the Internet: new database of insider transactions and liquidity

In a world awash with data, it is surprising that important decisions would ever be made in the absence of data. However, the paucity of widely available research-oriented databases of our rapidly changing financial markets critically limits academically- rigorous preemptive investigations. Too often public policy decisions concerning the transformation of our financial markets, for example the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, are made in the absence of scientific evidence. Less costly and timelier databases are needed to better evaluate capital markets legislation and regulations — before they become law. This paper examines a new database of over one million insider filings for 13,000 U.S. securities and a new methodology for rapidly building other databases. An important new class of databases termed ‘snapshots of the Internet’ is described. These databases may help fill critical gaps in our knowledge bases and improve the quality of national and international economic policy decisions.