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This article offers a dynamic analysis of the debt ratio of a broad panel of French firms, incorporating R&D activity and using the system GMM estimation method. The results show that R&D intensity (ratio of R&D expenditures to sales) has a negative influence on the ratios of bank debt to total resources and to total debt. Profitability also has a negative impact on these ratios, even as small businesses and listed firms have a higher proportion of bank debt. Lastly, these effects prove robust to the introduction of additional explanatory variables, several of which are found to be significant. For instance, the use of bank debt increases with loan guarantees and decreases with financing by the enterprise group.