저자: 이경태(한국은행) 

<요약>

Most studies on zombie firms focus on listed firms which account for only a small fraction of the firm population largely because of limited access to data on private firms. Using a novel dataset that covers virtually the entire universe of firms in Korea, this study provides new evidence on the extent of zombification in the over-all economy, with particular emphasis on private firms, where systematic evidence has been scarce. We show that the aggregate share of assets and financial liabilities held by zombie firms is driven by externally audited, and thus larger firms, while the economic presence of private zombies remains limited and stable over time. Consistent with the existing literature, we find economically meaningful congestion effects of zombie firms on healthier firms. Higher zombie prevalence is associated with lower investment, employment, productivity, and profitability among non-zombie firms, and these effects persist over time. The adverse spillovers are substantially stronger for smaller firms and for firms operating in non-tradable sectors. These effects are particularly pronounced for investment and employment outcomes, with the heterogeneity being especially strong among private firms. We further show that the exit of zombie firms can generate non-trivial gains in aggregate productivity and value added, while acknowledging that such reallocation may involve distributional trade-offs across firms, workers, and creditors. Overall, the findings suggest that the primary economic cost of zombification lies not in its prevalence among small firms, but in the disproportionate burden that zombie congestion imposes on smaller firms. This underscores the importance of policies that facilitate corporate restructuring and timely firm exit, while limiting incentives for inefficient credit continuation.