This new time series on price and return indices for the Belgian railroad sector during the 19th century and comparison with the historical risk premium confirms the risk premium to be positive although not that high as was commonly understood.

We investigate monthly returns of Belgian stocks listed on the Brussels stock exchange in the period 1838–2010. Our dataset is based on official quotation lists of the stock exchange, and it takes into account all common stocks that were ever listed on the stock exchange during the period...

The limited availability of high quality and computer readable data seriously impedes research in history and finance. We introduce a new monthly return series for Belgian owned equity based on Brussels Stock Market data for the period 1832–1914 as an improvement to the popular Drappier index....

Before the First World War a global wave of foreign direct investment materialised. Belgium participated in it on a global scale but after the War a shift towards the Belgian colony (Congo) was observed. With regard to these colonial investments, it is commonly argued that higher (expected)...

In this article, we calculate a market-weighted return index for the 20 largest stocks listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange over the period 1833–2005, based on a new, unique and high-quality database. We find that this index captures the most important stylised facts of the value-weighted...