The Manufacturing Sector Master File: 1959-1987

This document describes the panel of publicly traded United States manufacturing firms which was created and updated at the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1978 through 1990 within the Productivity Program. The panel consists of 2726 large manufacturing firms with one to twenty-nine years of data each; the period covered by the sampling frame was 1976 through 1987, with data back to 1959 where possible. There are about 90 variable for each firm-year of data: the variables give the complete income statement, balance sheet, statement of changes, and data on the market value f the common stock. The firms on the file are identified both by their CUSIP number and by name, making it feasible to match this data to other sources. A special feature of this data file is that all exits from the file between 1976 and 1987 have been identified and the reasons for exit have been tabulated in a diskette file. This file is described in Appendix A of this document.