Zombification of the economy? Assessing the effectiveness of French government support during COVID-19 lockdown
本文通过理论模型和模拟，评估法国政府在疫情封锁期间对企业无条件财政支持的效果，发现政策帮助了健康但流动性不足的企业，且未导致低生产率企业过度受益的“僵尸化”效应。
This paper evaluates the risk of zombification of the French economy during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, as a result of the unconditional financial support provided to firms by public authorities, to limit the impact of lockdown measures. We develop a simple theoretical framework based on a partial-equilibrium model to simulate the liquidity and solvency stress faced by a large panel of French firms and assess the impact of government support. Simulation results suggest that those policies helped healthy but illiquid firms to withstand the shock caused by the pandemic. Moreover, the analysis finds no evidence of a “zombification effect”, as less productive companies did not disproportionately benefit from government support.