Some participants noted that the data were limited to 2005–07. The authors explained that data with the necessary information for other years are not available. Fredrik Sjöholm argued that the situation might be worse than the one described in the paper, considering the large increase in government subsidies to zombie firms that took place in 2009.
Deborah Swenson mentioned the presence of foreign multinational zombie firms. She thought this was highly unusual considering the typical high productivity and efficiency in multinational firms. She also wondered if this type of firm should be grouped together with the rest of the zombie firms. Chalongphob Sussangkarn continued and argued that some zombie firms might have objectives other than profit maximization. One example would be firms providing social services.
Other participants asked about the effect of subsidies on the receiving zombie firms. Clearly, they would not survive without the support but it would be...