Hello everyone,

For my thesis I gathered data from Compustat and Institutional Shareholders Services(ISS). The data gathered from Compustat is fiscal year data(fiscal year data is needed for my analysis about earnings management) and the data retrieved from ISS is calendar year data(to measure effects of corporate governance mechanisms on the degree of earnings management)

How the data looks like (simply explained):

Compustat:
Firm: Apple, Fiscal-year end: 31May2009 Fiscal Year: 2008
Firm: Apple, Fiscal-year end: 31May2010 Fiscal Year: 2009

ISS:
Firm: Apple, year: 2008
Firm Apple, year: 2009

Can I just compare the data of fiscal year 2008 of Apple with governance data from ISS of 2008? Or do I have to make changes before I can compare these years?

Does somebody know how I can reliably compare these firm years? Thanks in advance!

Kind Regards,
Sjoerd