Publicação
Fear the walking dead: the epidemic of zombie firms in Portugal
| Resumo: | This study explores firms called “zombies” in the Portuguese economy. These firms are defined as old firms and have persistent problems in paying interest on bank loans and sidetrack labor productivity from healthy companies. The theme of zombie firms has been analyzed from the case of Japan in the 1990s to the most recent on OECD countries (i.e. Portugal). Several authors have studied this theme, the most well-known being Caballero et al. (2008). First the idea of Caballero et. al (2008) being applied, then the simplified formula of McGowan et al. (2018) was used to compute the regression. The present study shows that, between 2010 and 2018, in the Portuguese economy we had zombie firms following a less restricted and a more restricted analysis. In the first, on average, during the years of analysis we have about 12.8% while in the second this number decreases to 7.4%. In the less restrictive analysis, firms need to be, at least, 10 years old to remove bias using newest firms (for example start-ups) and the interest coverage rate is less than 1 per cent. for at least 3 consecutive years. In the more restrictive, it has been implemented to previous financial ratios such as: Return on Assets and the total debt ratio. It was also confirmed by using Ordinary Least Squares, Fixed Effects and Random Effects models, as well as a Probit model, that zombie companies tend to be related to specific sectors of the economy, certain areas of the country and their size (number of employees). These zombie companies have significant implications for healthy companies operating in the same industry, reducing employment and profit margin. |
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| Autores principais: | Pita, João Afonso Pereira |
| Assunto: | Eployment Financial ratios Financing Indebtness Zombie firms Capital Emprego Empresas zombie Endividamento Financiamento Rácios financeiros |
| Ano: | 2019 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | This study explores firms called “zombies” in the Portuguese economy. These firms are defined as old firms and have persistent problems in paying interest on bank loans and sidetrack labor productivity from healthy companies. The theme of zombie firms has been analyzed from the case of Japan in the 1990s to the most recent on OECD countries (i.e. Portugal). Several authors have studied this theme, the most well-known being Caballero et al. (2008). First the idea of Caballero et. al (2008) being applied, then the simplified formula of McGowan et al. (2018) was used to compute the regression. The present study shows that, between 2010 and 2018, in the Portuguese economy we had zombie firms following a less restricted and a more restricted analysis. In the first, on average, during the years of analysis we have about 12.8% while in the second this number decreases to 7.4%. In the less restrictive analysis, firms need to be, at least, 10 years old to remove bias using newest firms (for example start-ups) and the interest coverage rate is less than 1 per cent. for at least 3 consecutive years. In the more restrictive, it has been implemented to previous financial ratios such as: Return on Assets and the total debt ratio. It was also confirmed by using Ordinary Least Squares, Fixed Effects and Random Effects models, as well as a Probit model, that zombie companies tend to be related to specific sectors of the economy, certain areas of the country and their size (number of employees). These zombie companies have significant implications for healthy companies operating in the same industry, reducing employment and profit margin. |
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