Capital Structure and Firm Performance: A comparative Study of Oil & Gas and Manufacturing Sectors in the United States of America

This paper empirically examines the effects of capital structure on the performances of the Unites States’ Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors and investigates the differences in the dynamics of the two sectors. The study employs secondary data sourced from New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)/ NASDAQ for a period of ten (10) years, that is, 2010-2019. It utilized E-View 9.0 for generating the estimation results. The investigation has been performed using panel least square estimation technique and sectoral analysis on the data collected in order to test the set hypotheses. The result shows that although debt structure improved the performances of the firms, a sharp increase in such leverage tends to reduce firm performance for all the firms used. Coefficients namely asset tangibility, interest payment and dividend growth, directors’ shares/inside ownership and non-debt tax shield are quite significant in the result. They demonstrate positive relationships, indicating that these variables tend to affect firm performance on the average across both sectors; especially, the results show that the more efficient firms in terms of shielding taxation perform better. The study therefore recommends among other things that selection of debt as a source of capital finance should be done in line with the costs and benefits associated with the use of debt.