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jbf-data-analysis

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Use when building or auditing the empirical data and estimation pipeline for a Journal of Banking & Finance manuscript, including financial datasets, bank panels, winsorization, fixed effects, robustness, and reproducible scripts.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/Journal-of-Banking-and-Finance-Skills/skills/jbf-data-analysis/SKILL.md

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Data Analysis (jbf-data-analysis)

When to trigger

  • You are constructing the sample, variables, or estimation pipeline
  • Results need robustness, heterogeneity, mechanism, or economic-magnitude checks
  • Proprietary finance datasets require a reproducible but non-redistributable workflow

Data construction

  1. Document every source: CRSP, Compustat, Call Reports, BankFocus, Dealscan, TRACE, OptionMetrics, FDIC, SEC EDGAR, FRED, or private hand-collected data.
  2. Define the unit of observation: bank-quarter, firm-year, loan facility, security-day, country-year, event-firm, etc.
  3. Show sample attrition: raw data, filters, merges, missing variables, winsorization, final sample.
  4. Name variable construction rules: scaling, deflation, lagging, exchange rates, identifiers, and industry/bank classifications.
  5. Separate proprietary raw data from shareable code so the replication package can be legal and useful.

Estimation checklist

  • Use fixed effects and clustering that match the design.
  • Report economic magnitudes in finance units: basis points, percentage of assets, capital ratio points, loan-spread basis points, abnormal returns, default odds.
  • Provide robustness over winsorization, sample windows, variable definitions, and alternative outcome measures.
  • For event studies, report CAR/BHAR windows and benchmark choices.
  • For bank panels, test sensitivity to crisis periods, large banks, mergers, and regulatory regime changes.

Reproducibility

  • Keep a single run_all entry point that regenerates tables and figures.
  • Pin software versions and random seeds.
  • Store intermediate files only when they materially reduce runtime; document how they are made.
  • Prepare a data-access README for licensed sources.

Bank-panel stress checks

For bank/intermediation panels, add targeted checks for:

  • crisis-period sensitivity;
  • large-bank or systemically important institution influence;
  • mergers and identifier breaks;
  • regulatory regime changes;
  • balance-sheet scaling and winsorization choices.

Report which checks are main-text, appendix, or archive-only.

Dataset-to-question matrix

SourceUnitJBF expectationCaveat to pre-empt
US Call Reports / FR Y-9Cbank- or BHC-quartermerger-adjusted series; top-holder aggregation choice statedidentifier breaks across RSSD changes
Orbis Bank Focus (ex-BankScope)bank-year, cross-countryconsolidation-code filters documentedduplicated statements across consolidation levels
DealScanloan facilityfacility vs package level stated; lead-arranger roles definedborrower link tables need documented match rates
FDIC SDI / failure databank-quartersurvivorship handling for failed and acquired banksde novo entrants and charter conversions
Cross-country regulation surveyscountry-wavesurvey-wave timing matched to the outcome windowself-reported regulation measures

Worked sample build (illustrative)

Target: bank-quarter panel for a liquidity-regulation study, 2005Q1–2019Q4.

  • Raw Call Reports: 612,000 bank-quarters (illustrative count).
  • Drop de novo banks (<5 years), foreign branches, and banks under $100 million in assets: −118,000.
  • Merger-adjust around RSSD changes; drop quarters with >50% asset jumps: −24,000.
  • Require non-missing CET1, loans, and core deposits; winsorize ratios at 1/99: final ≈465,000.
  • Put exactly this attrition table in the appendix — JBF referees read it before the regressions.

Pipeline skeleton

01_pull_callreports.*   # raw downloads, data vintage recorded
02_merger_adjust.*      # RSSD link table + asset-jump audit
03_build_panel.*        # ratios, lags, winsorization flags
04_baseline.*           # FE + clustering per jbf-identification-strategy
05_robustness.*         # crisis splits, large-bank drops, alt definitions
06_export_exhibits.*    # tables/figures numbered as in the manuscript

Economic-magnitude benchmarks for bank panels

  • Loan growth: report effects relative to sample-mean quarterly growth, not only the raw coefficient.
  • Capital: percentage points of CET1, anchored to the regulatory minimum or buffer.
  • Spreads: basis points relative to the mean all-in-drawn spread.
  • Risk: change in Z-score or NPL ratio relative to the cross-sectional standard deviation.
  • Funding: percentage points of the core-deposit or wholesale-funding share.

Referee data pushbacks

  • "Are results a 2008–09 artifact?" → re-estimate excluding 2007Q3–2009Q4 and report both estimates.
  • "Bank Focus duplicates inflate your N." → show the consolidation-filter step with before/after counts.
  • "DealScan spreads ignore fees." → use the all-in-drawn spread and say so in the variable definitions.
  • "Winsorizing at 1/99 hides outliers." → also show 2.5/97.5 and trimmed samples in an appendix column.
  • "Results hinge on the largest banks." → report with and without the systemically important institutions.

Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)

Run the battery, don't just enumerate it. Full map: execution-with-mcp. JBF is empirical banking/finance — corporate/bank causal designs around regulation and shocks.

  • Many outcomes / specifications: romano_wolf (step-down FWER) or benjamini_hochberg.
  • OVB sensitivity: oster_delta / sensemakr.
  • Inference: wild_cluster_bootstrap (few clusters), twoway_cluster / conley.
  • Re-fit off one handle: audit_result(result_id) lists missing checks + the exact suggest_function for each.
  • Exhibits: etable / did_summary_to_latex from the handle — no retyped numbers.

Decisive checks in the body, exhaustive battery in the appendix. JF execution walkthrough.

Output format

[Sample] unit + period + observations
[Data sources] ...
[Key variables] ...
[Main estimator] ...
[Robustness queue] ...
[Reproducibility gaps] ...
[Next step] jbf-tables-figures