Farzad Saidi discussion of: Corporate zombies
讨论僵尸企业的定义、成因及影响，指出银行因避免确认贷款损失而持续为僵尸企业融资，可能挤出对非僵尸企业的贷款，并综述全球三十年僵尸企业的演变与特征。
Why should we – as economists – be afraid of zombies, if it is not for the excessive use of a seemingly inexhaustible collection of references to horror movies and other, less scary pop culture in research papers or presentations at academic venues? Empirical evidence of zombie firms is typically viewed as a sign that financial intermediation is not working, that is, that it is not as successful in directing resources to their most efficient use in the real economy. Banks have an incentive to keep zombies alive by continuing to provide them with financing in an attempt not to have to recognize loan losses on their balance sheets. This is especially true if banks are weakly capitalized and the materialization of such losses might lead them to hit their capital constraints, in which case lending to non-zombie firms may be crowded out. Against this background, much of the literature focuses on the role of bank health in fostering the growth of zombie firms, and on the potential spillover effects from their continued financing by banks (see Acharya et al., 2022, for a formidable review). Rather than to focus on the indirect welfare costs of keeping zombies on life support, the present paper offers a comprehensive view of the evolution and characteristics of zombie firms around the world over three decades.