vintage files. Additionally, we retrieve the variables in Table 1 from the ORBIS interface to construct the four different modules of the Global BOS database.

_Table 1 . Variables retrieved from ORBIS interface_

|**Variable**|**Variable Name in Orbis**|**Description**|
|---|---|---|
|Company ID|BvD ID number|Unique identifier for each entity provided by BvD for each<br>company.|
|Name of the company|Companyname Latin alphabet|Full name of the company (as registered)|
|Consolidation Code|Consolidation code|**Consolidated**, when the parent company reports financial<br>statements with the results for the whole corporate group<br>(parent and subsidiaries).<br>**Unconsolidated,**when the subsidiaries and the parent<br>company report in individual manner. The latter are the<br>focus of the database, but we need to keep track of the<br>consolidation code to avoid anydouble countingissues.|
|Year of incorporation|Date of incorporation|Year of start operations of the firm(incorporation date)|
|Legal Form|National legal form|National legal form. It varies bycountry.|
|Main Economic Activity (1-digit) and<br>Description|NACE Rev. 2 Main Section (1 digit and<br>description)|Sector classification of the main economic activity using<br>NACE rev 2 classification - 1-digit and specific description.|
|Main Economic Activity (2-digit)|NACE Rev. 2, Core code (2 digits and<br>description)|Sector classification of main economic activity using NACE<br>rev 2 classification – 2-digit and specific description.|
|Main Economic Activity (4-digit)|NACE Rev. 2, core code (4 digits and<br>description)|Sector classification of main economic activity using NACE<br>rev 2 classification – 4-digit and specific description.|
|Country|Country|Countryfull name|
|CountryISO code|CountryISO code|ISO 2-digits code for the country|
|Employment|Number of employees|Total number of workers in the company (temporal and<br>permanent)|
|OperatingRevenues(Turnover)|Operatingrevenue(Turnover)|Operatingrevenues|
|Netprofits/losses|Profit/(loss)after tax|After taxprofit/losses|

Source: Authors’ elaboration

# 3.2 ORBIS data limitations and additional data sources

As (Kalemli-Ozcan, Sorensen, Villegas-Sanchez, Volosovych, & Yesiltas, 2015) pointed out, financial information in ORBIS for most European countries is superior to that of other countries because firms are required by law to file their financial information in Europe. In contrast, detailed financial data on SOEs are limited in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia region due to weak oversight of SOEs and/or to a lack of direct access to financial statements (IMF, 2021). When information is not available in ORBIS, the Global BOS database is complemented with data from alternative sources, including official data from the Ministry of Finance, Treasury, business registries, tax authorities, local stock exchange (e.g., listed SOEs), open data sources, with a priority given to official government information in cases where a discrepancy is found (see Table A.2 in the Annex).

Key alternative data sources for the preparation of the Global BOS database include EMIS intelligence, which covers more than 5.5 million listed and unlisted firms across more than 125 emerging markets. Through EMIS intelligence, it is possible to identify a company’s main sector of operation, as well as its financial statements at the unconsolidated level, audit status, and year of incorporation, among other 13