IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofrdp/22023.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who funds zombie firms: Banks or non-banks?

Author

Listed:
  • Tuuli, Saara

Abstract

Analyses of zombie firms have emphasised the role of bank financing as the reason for zombie survival. This conclusion was made despite no comparative analysis of the sources of external finance for zombie firms. This paper provides the first analysis of that sort using Finnish data. Surprisingly, the results show quite clearly that there is no connection between zombie survival and bank financing; this result is robust to various measurement and specification issues. Instead, a role is found for owners (i.e. equity funders) in keeping zombies alive in the (often correct) anticipation of the firm recovering.

Suggested Citation

  • Tuuli, Saara, 2023. "Who funds zombie firms: Banks or non-banks?," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 2/2023, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:22023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/268727/1/1834111137.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Andrews & Filippos Petroulakis, 2017. "Breaking the Shackles: Zombie Firms, Weak Banks and Depressed Restructuring in Europe," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1433, OECD Publishing.
    2. Takeo Hoshi & Anil K. Kashyap, 2004. "Japan's Financial Crisis and Economic Stagnation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 3-26, Winter.
    3. Nurmi, Satu & Vanhala, Juuso & Virén, Matti E. E., 2020. "The life and death of zombies: Evidence from government subsidies to firms," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 8/2020, Bank of Finland.
    4. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2020_008 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ryan Niladri Banerjee & Boris Hofmann, 2018. "The rise of zombie firms: causes and consequences," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    6. Söderblom, Anna & Samuelsson, Mikael & Wiklund, Johan & Sandberg, Rickard, 2015. "Inside the black box of outcome additionality: Effects of early-stage government subsidies on resource accumulation and new venture performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1501-1512.
    7. Yunzhi Hu & Felipe Varas, 2021. "A Theory of Zombie Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1813-1867, August.
    8. Viral V Acharya & Tim Eisert & Christian Eufinger & Christian Hirsch, 2019. "Whatever It Takes: The Real Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(9), pages 3366-3411.
    9. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    10. Müge Adalet McGowan & Dan Andrews & Valentine Millot & Thorsten BeckManaging Editor, 2018. "The walking dead? Zombie firms and productivity performance in OECD countries," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 33(96), pages 685-736.
    11. Viral V. Acharya & Matteo Crosignani & Tim Eisert & Christian Eufinger, 2024. "Zombie Credit and (Dis‐)Inflation: Evidence from Europe," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(3), pages 1883-1929, June.
    12. International Monetary Fund, 2016. "Finland: Financial System Stability Assessment," IMF Staff Country Reports 2016/370, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Joe Peek & Eric S. Rosengren, 2005. "Unnatural Selection: Perverse Incentives and the Misallocation of Credit in Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1144-1166, September.
    15. Giacomo Rodano & Enrico Sette, 2019. "Zombie firms in Italy: a critical assessment," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 483, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moritz Schularick, 2021. "Corporate indebtedness and macroeconomic stabilisation from a long-term perspective," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 024, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    2. Álvarez, Laura & García-Posada, Miguel & Mayordomo, Sergio, 2023. "Distressed firms, zombie firms and zombie lending: A taxonomy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Diana Bonfim & Geraldo Cerqueiro & Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2023. "On-Site Inspecting Zombie Lending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2547-2567, May.
    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. Òscar Jordà & Martin Kornejew & Moritz Schularick & Alan M Taylor, 2022. "Zombies at Large? Corporate Debt Overhang and the Macroeconomy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(10), pages 4561-4586.
    6. Maximilian Gobel & Nuno Tavares, 2022. "Zombie-Lending in the United States -- Prevalence versus Relevance," Papers 2201.10524, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    7. Özlem Dursun-de Neef, H. & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2021. "COVID-19 and lending responses of European banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Luc Laeven & Glenn Schepens & Isabel Schnabel, 2020. "Zombification in Europe in times of pandemic," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 011, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    10. 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.
    11. Shangming Yang & Yanjiang Zhang & Jinyuan Zhang & Bochao Zhang, 2024. "Technology accessibility and the local government's incentive to aid zombie firms in China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 501-523, April.
    12. Laura Blattner & Luisa Farinha & Francisca Rebelo, 2017. "When Losses Turn Into Loans: The Cost of Undercapitalized Banks," 2017 Papers pbl215, Job Market Papers.
    13. Barbaro, Bianca & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2021. "Forbearance vs foreclosure in a general equilibrium model," Working Paper Series 2531, European Central Bank.
    14. Jiani Li & Jie Li & Tianhang Zhou, 2023. "State ownership and zombie firms: Evidence from China's 2008 stimulus plan," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 853-876, October.
    15. Fabian Herweg & Maximilian Kähny, 2022. "Do Zombies Rise when Interest Rates Fall? A Relationship Banking Model," CESifo Working Paper Series 9628, CESifo.
    16. Feng, Ling & Lang, Henan & Pei, Tingting, 2022. "Zombie firms and corporate savings: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 551-564.
    17. Mingarelli, Luca & Ravanetti, Beatrice & Shakir, Tamarah & Wendelborn, Jonas, 2022. "Dawn of the (half) dead: the twisted world of zombie identification," Working Paper Series 2743, European Central Bank.
    18. Li, Xinyu & Wang, Huacheng & Li, Rong, 2023. "A hidden channel of “blood transfusion”: Internal capital market subsidies and zombie firms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    19. Hartwig, Benny & Lieberknecht, Philipp, 2020. "Monetary policy, firm exit and productivity," Discussion Papers 61/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Shen, Yu & Ren, Meixu & Zhao, Jingmei, 2023. "Bank competition and zombie company: Empirical evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 297-318.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    zombie firms; banks; credit constraints; firm-level data; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:bofrdp:22023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofgvfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.