ICF Research Helps Measure the Magnitude of the U.S. Stock Market Drop

The January 6, 2009 Economist.com story “Boom and bust” reported that 2008 was the second-worst performing year for the U.S. stock market since 1825. Belgian asset management firm Value Square performed the calculation using, in part, historical data from the New York Stock Exchange History Research Project. The project is an on-going effort of the International Center for Finance (ICF) at the Yale School of Management to collect price and dividend information on NYSE stocks from the beginning of the exchange to the present. The database allows researchers to test hypotheses about U.S. capital markets and analyze long-term trends and performance. The ICF also maintains historical databases for the London, Shanghai, and St. Petersburg Stock Exchanges.

“History is the true measure of the current financial crisis,” said William N. Goetzmann, the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies and Director of the International Center for Finance. “It provides a crucial perspective on the magnitude of the current financial turmoil. 2008 was one of the worst years for U.S. equities since the beginning of the New York Stock Exchange.”