Statistical Measures of Corporate Bond Financing since 1900.

The Decline of Secured Debt

“…Finally, industrial firms experienced the largest decline in secured bond issuances among the three major sectors studied by Hickman (1960). Secured bonds accounted for all the bonds issued by industrial firms in 1900 and was between 53% and 58% between 1911 and 1913; they averaged 49% during the 1920s and 13% in 1943.…”

“…This table reports results from the analysis of cyclicality in secured debt issuance. Panel A reports results using bond issuance data from Mergent for the 1960 to 2019 time period, whereas Panel B reports results using bond issuance data from Hickman (1960) for the 1900 to1943 time period. The dependent variable is the cyclical component of the dollar share of secured debt issuance in each quarter (Panel A) or year (Panel B).…”

“…To construct our series of secured debt issuance over time, we use five main data sources: Hickman (1960), the Commercial and Financial Chronicle (CFC) , Mergent, Compustat, and Moody's Industrial Manual (starting in 1926). We draw on supplementary sources to complement our analysis.…”

“…This figure displays the fraction of secured bond issuance by value by utilities (Panel A), railroads (Panel B), and industrials (Panel C) from 1900 until 1943. Source: Hickman (1960). [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…Each color represents a different data source: Hickman (1960) data are in blue, CFC data in red, and Mergent data in green. Sources: Hickman (1960), Commercial and Financial Chronicles , and Mergent. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”