Japanese Firms During the Lost Two Decades: The Recovery of Zombie Firms and Entrenchment of Reputable Firms

Why has Japan's lost decade become the lost two decades? This book attempts to provide a novel perspective on causes of stagnant productivity growth of the Japanese corporate sector during the lost two decades. Exploiting the corporate financial dataset compiled by the Development Bank of Japan, it shows empirical evidence that an excessive conservative financial policy of firms in good standing were responsible for sluggish reallocation of productive resources after the recovery of “zombie...