A Comparative International Study of Growth, Profitability, and Risk as Determinants of Corporate Debt Ratios in the Manufacturing Sector

The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that three financial performance variables, namely, growth, profitability, and risk, are determinants of corporate debt ratios in the manufacturing sector in industrialized countries. In particular, a linear model is hypothesized and Ordinary Least Squares is used to estimate the coefficients for the relationship. The sample used contains 816 firms in four selected industries in five industrialized countries during the period 1966–72.