Long-term digital economic data are mainly available at the macro level for Flanders and Belgium.
However, new research questions require microdata that are only available in printed form. To make
microdata on firms available in computer-readable form, research groups from the universities of
Antwerp and Ghent are joining forces. Belgium has a long tradition of publishing essential data on
companies in the Appendices to the Belgian Official Gazette since 1873. In addition, excellent
reference works were compiled at the time for the benefit of investors. These sources contain a
wealth of information on companies: date of incorporation, (successive) company names, addresses,
names (and addresses) of directors and shareholders, balance sheets and profit and loss accounts,
securities portfolios, information on capital increases, dividend and interest payments, relations
between companies (participation in cartels, (de)mergers, spin-offs, ...). The research infrastructure
"BelHisFirm: long-term business data for the social sciences" will bring all these microdata together
in a database and make tools for the visualisation and analysis of the data available to researchers.
BelHisFirm will thus enable, among other things, pioneering research on long-term trends in
corporate finance, wealth inequality and the economic and financial impact of (de)colonisation.