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

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  • Albuquerque, Bruno
  • Iyer, Roshan

Abstract

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.

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  • Albuquerque, Bruno & Iyer, Roshan, 2024. "The rise of the walking dead: Zombie firms around the world," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:152:y:2024:i:c:s0022199624001466
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2024.104019
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    Cited by:

    1. Ryan Niladri Banerjee & Aaron Mehrotra & Fabrizio Zampolli, 2024. "Keeping the momentum: how finance can continue to support growth in EMEs," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Keeping the momentum: how finance can continue to support growth in EMEs, volume 127, pages 1-39, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Chakrabarti, Prasenjit & Kaur, Jasmeet, 2024. "Zombie-lending during the pandemic in India: Did the Central Bank reduce credit misallocation concerns of forbearance?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 153-170.
    3. Tomohito HONDA & Arito ONO & Iichiro UESUGI & Yukihiro YASUDA, 2023. "Anatomy of Out-of-court Debt Workouts for SMEs," Discussion papers 23088, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Ricardo Pinheiro Alves & Nuno Tavares & Gabriel Osório de Barros, 2023. "Revisitar as Empresas Zombie em Portugal (2008-2021)," GEE Papers 178, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Oct 2023.
    5. Masashige Hamano & Philip Schnattinger & Mototsugu Shintani & Iichiro Uesugi & Francesco Zanetti, 2025. "Credit Market Tightness and Zombie Firms: Theory and Evidence," CAMA Working Papers 2025-05, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    6. Anna Białek-Jaworska & Aneta Maria Dzik-Walczak & Edyta Choromańska, 2025. "Przyczyny niekontynuowania działalności a specyfika spółek rodzinnych," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 50-67.
    7. Bruno Albuquerque, 2024. "Corporate debt booms, financial constraints, and the investment nexus," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(5), pages 766-789, August.
    8. Baki Cem Sahin, 2024. "Zombie Firms, Firm-Bank Relationship and Spillover," CBT Research Notes in Economics 2410, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.
    9. Kovacs, Oliver, 2024. "Exaptationary Industry 4.0: Graphene as pathfinder?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    10. Giovanni Favara & Camelia Minoiu & Ander Pérez-Orive, 2024. "Zombie Lending to U.S. Firms," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2024-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    11. Yoshibumi Makabe & Tomoyuki Yagi, 2024. "Firms' Interest Payment Burden and Productivity under a Low Interest Rate Environment," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 24-E-20, Bank of Japan.
    12. Alper, Koray & Baskaya, Soner & Shi, Shuren, 2025. "How do macroprudential policies affect corporate investment? Insights from EIBIS data," EIB Working Papers 2025/02, European Investment Bank (EIB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Zombie firms; Listed and private firms; Corporate investment; Congestion effects; Macroprudential policies; Syndicated loans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation

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