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Discussion Paper
Recession Risk and the Excess Bond Premium
In this FEDS Note, we evaluate the information content for recession risk of a component of credit spreads that is not directly attributable to expected default risk and thus to news about future cash flows.
Discussion Paper
U.S. Zombie Firms: How Many and How Consequential?
The unprecedented fiscal and monetary policy support in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore concerns that cheap credit could fuel the financing of zombie firms—that is, firms that are unable to generate enough profits to cover debt-servicing costs and that need to borrow to stay alive. Many observers have recently commented that zombie firms may crowd out lending to productive firms and erode the strength of the U.S. economy.
Working Paper
Zombie Lending to U.S. Firms
We show that U.S. banks do not engage in zombie lending to firms of deteriorating profitability, irrespective of capital levels and exposure to such firms. In contrast, unregulated financial intermediaries do, originating more and cheaper loans to these firms. We establish these results using supervisory data on firm-bank relationships, syndicated lending data for banks and nonbanks, and an empirical setting with quasi-random shocks to firm profitability. Although credit migrates from banks to nonbanks, zombie firms file for bankruptcy at an elevated rate, suggesting that nonbanks’ zombie ...