Zombie firms, state subsidies and aggregate productivity
利用中国制造业企业数据，发现僵尸企业规模更大、生产率更低且获得更高补贴，通过模型量化发现减少补贴差异比促进僵尸退出更能提升全要素生产率。
Abstract Using firm‐level data from the manufacturing sector in China, I document that zombie firms are larger and less productive, and receive higher subsidy rates on average. The difference in subsidy rates between zombies and non‐zombies reflects both the selection criteria of zombies and the underlying joint distribution of subsidy rate and productivity. I develop a model with heterogeneous firms to quantify the impact of zombies on aggregate productivity. Quantitative exercises show that while both policies—reducing subsidy dispersion and facilitating zombie exits—effectively reduce the zombie rate, the former yields greater productivity gains.