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As part of an ongoing study of R & D, inventive output, and productivity change, the authors are assembling a large data set for a panel of US firms with annual data from 1972 (or earlier) through 1978. This file will include financial variables, research and development expenditures, and data on patents. The goal is to have as complete a cross section as possible of US firms in the manufacturing sector which existed in 1976, with time-series information on the same firms for the years before and after 1976. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of these data in the cross-sectional dimension, laying some groundwork for the future by exploring the characteristics of this sample and by describing the R & D and patenting behavior of the firms in it. This paper follows previous work on a smaller sample of 157 firms (see Pakes and Griliches 1980 and Pakes 1981).