CRSP

CRSP, short for the Center for Research in Security Prices, is a nonprofit data library maintained by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business that provides historical data on securities traded in the United States. It is widely used in academic research and financial analysis to study asset pricing, market microstructure, corporate actions, and related topics.

The core offering is the CRSP US Stock Database, which contains daily stock prices, returns, trading volumes, and extensive metadata for stocks listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX. The database also includes delisting returns and a survivorship-bias-free history, designed to capture historical securities that were delisted or ceased trading. In addition to stock data, CRSP maintains related datasets such as the CRSP US Mutual Funds Database and, through merged products, the CRSP/COMPUSTAT Merged database that links price data with fundamental firm data.

Access to CRSP data is typically provided through institutional licensing, most commonly via the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) platform. Universities and other research institutions offer CRSP access to their faculty and students under license. The data are frequently used for empirical finance research, performance measurement, event studies, and index construction, with detailed documentation and data quality checks to support rigorous scholarly work.

History and governance: CRSP originated at the University of Chicago in the mid-20th century as a collaborative effort to standardize and preserve security price data. It operates as a research resource within the university, supported by subscriptions and licensing arrangements with academic institutions and approved researchers.