Changing Balance Sheet Relationships in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector, 1926-77

This paper documents trends in the sources and uses of funds, market valuations, and rates of return for a sample of U.S. manufacturing firms during the half -century ending in 1977. The major objective of the paper is to construct economic balance sheet relationships based on securities market valuations rather than on the more familiar book values used for accounting purposes. Among the more interesting long-term trends highlighted in the analysis is the finding that the widely recognized increase in debt in manufacturing firms' capitalization has come primarily at the expense of .preferred stock. A second interesting point is the contrast between the sharp fall in common equity values in 1929-32, which was entirely reversed by 1936, and the even sharper post-1968 decline which was not reversed by 1977 nor, for that matter, by 1981. This paper is an introduction to a more comprehensive study which will be part of the second stage of the Debt/Equity Research Project.