Projects

Dawn of the Dead? Zombie firms in Slovakia

doc. Ing. Eduard Baumöhl, PhD.

Members of project
doc. Ing. Eduard Baumöhl, PhD.

• Basic informations
• Characteristics

• Duration of the project: 09/2024 - 08/2026
  ID number: 09I03-03-V04-00337

  Fellowships for excellent researchers R2-R4

• The project is aimed at the so-called zombie firms within the Slovak business environment. These types of firms might represent a severe danger to an otherwise healthy economy, as a high share of zombie firms can lead to a decline in aggregate productivity either through a credit misallocation channel or through a congestion channel. The outcome is that zombie firms, in the end, reduce the profits of healthy firms, lower their investment and employment growth, and might represent a barrier to the entry of new companies. Within the project we will (i) analyze various measures for identifying zombie firms, (ii) estimate firm efficiency and compare healthy firms with their zombie counterparts, (iii) focus on zombie lending during the COVID-19 period, and (iv) calculate zombie firm survival rates in Slovakia. By fulfilling all these four goals, we should be able to provide a panoramic view of the prevalence of zombie firms in the Slovak economy; a topic that has not been covered in the conditions of the Slovak business environment yet.