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The share of zombie firms among Austrian nonfinancial companies

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Beer

    (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Analysis Division)

  • Norbert Ernst
  • Walter Waschiczek

    (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Analysis Division)

Abstract

Aggregate productivity and economic growth may be reduced by “zombie firms” – weakly performing companies that, instead of exiting the market or being restructured, manage to continue operating over an extended period. This article presents first results on the incidence of such zombie firms in Austria, based on three definitions relating to firms’ interest expenses but focusing on different aspects thereof. The main definition measures interest expenses as a ratio of earnings (“interest coverage ratio”). The other two definitions are based on the relationship of interest expenses to liabilities and enhance this information either with firms’ probability of default or their interest coverage ratio. According to all three definitions, the share of zombies fell substantially (even if to different degrees) between 2009 and 2018, across industries and firm sizes. The drop of the zombie share was particularly strong for highly leveraged enterprises. Still, at the end of our observation period, zombie firms continued to have less favorable risk characteristics than non-zombie firms, in particular a distinctly higher probability of default. How this pattern may have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be seen because our data do not go beyond 2018. Somewhat reassuringly, zombie firms are not more prevalent in those industries that were hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Further findings were obtained with simulations keeping the policy interest rate unchanged over the period under review. Under this assumption, the zombie share established with firms’ interest coverage ratio would have remained roughly constant. The difference between the observed and the simulated zombie shares is particularly pronounced for real estate-related industries, more leveraged firms, and larger companies. Finally, the data show that zombie status is not irreversible. Among those firms for which financial statements information is available for the entire observation period, most zombie firms manage to exit from zombie status.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Beer & Norbert Ernst & Walter Waschiczek, 2021. "The share of zombie firms among Austrian nonfinancial companies," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q2/21, pages 35-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:onb:oenbmp:y:2021:i:q2/21:b:2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bunel, Simon & Bijnens, Gert & Botelho, Vasco & Falck, Elisabeth & Labhard, Vincent & Lamo, Ana & Röhe, Oke & Schroth, Joachim & Sellner, Richard & Strobel, Johannes & Anghel, Brindusa, 2024. "Digitalisation and productivity," Occasional Paper Series 339, European Central Bank.
    2. Kaplan Zeynep & Aksoy Emine Ebru, 2025. "The Effects of Zombie Companies on the Economy: An Application on Türkiye," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 42-52.
    3. Norbert Ernst & Nico Pintar & Richard Sellner, 2023. "Resource Misallocation and TFP Gap Development in Austria (Richard Sellner, Nico Pintar, Norbert Ernst)," Working Papers 246, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    4. Kaehny, Maximilian & Herweg, Fabian, 2022. "Do Zombies Rise When Interest Rates Fall? A Relationship-Banking Model," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264126, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Fabian Herweg & Maximilian Kähny, 2022. "Do Zombies Rise when Interest Rates Fall? A Relationship Banking Model," CESifo Working Paper Series 9628, CESifo.
    6. Norbert Ernst & Michael Sigmund, 2023. "Are zombie firms really contagious? (Norbert Ernst, Michael Sigmund)," Working Papers 245, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects

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