The rise of the walking dead: Zombie firms around the world

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Albuquerque, Bruno; Iyer, Roshan
• 署名单位: International Monetary Fund; Universidade de Coimbra; American University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2024.104019
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: Zombie firms; Listed and private firms; Corporate investment; Congestion effects; Macroprudential policies; syndicated loans

摘要

We build a comprehensive new dataset spanning listed and private nonfinancial zombie firms across Advanced Economies and Emerging Markets over the past two decades. Our findings reveal a global rise in the prevalence of these unproductive and unviable firms, particularly since the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that private firms exhibit lower zombification rates due to their lower average survival rates. Our paper also offers a new perspective on zombie lending drivers: lenders may rationalize zombie lending based on overly optimistic expectations of a recovery in zombies' future earnings. We then document that macroprudential policies targeting bank capital and loan restrictions can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of zombification. However, strengthening the banking sector alone may not suffice without robust insolvency frameworks prepared to manage firm restructuring and insolvency.