Unternehmensbilanzen 1987-2016

Abstract

The database of the Corporate Balance Sheets (Ustan) comprises annual financial statements of non-financial corporations and is formed in the context of the refinancing business.
In discharging her monetary policy duty the Deutsche Bundesbank grants refinancing loans to domestic credit institutions. But there are collaterals eligible for refinancing at the central bank required as a prerequisite, like book credits to domestic non-financial enterprises. In order to control the intrinsic value of the securities the annual financial statements of the non-financial enterprises have to be submitted to the Bundesbank where they serve as a fundament for credit rating.
The data flows into the Financial Statements Data Pool, which is the database used for regular statistical analyses of German companies' earnings and financing situation. Results are published in the Special Statistical Publication 5 and 6.
This Ustan database comprises the years from 1987 to 2016 and can be used as a panel dataset for research purposes. Besides the balance sheet data, the profit and loss account and the asset history sheet (if any) additional information about the firm are available, like the branch of industry or the legal form.