Webinar
Monthly Webinar Series 2021:
Capital Market Development: China and Asia
- Zombies, Again? The COVID-19 Business Support Programs in Japan
9 December 2021, Thursday
10:00 am – 11:10 am, Thursday (Hong Kong Time, UTC+8)
[ Zombies, Again? The COVID-19 Business Support Programs in Japan ]
The authors designed and conducted a firm-level survey on the use of COVID-19-related government programs, in collaboration with Tokyo Shoko Research, LTD (TSR). Combining the survey results with the financial statements of the respondent firms, the authors investigated the factors behind the allocation of various government programs. The authors find that firms that had low credit scores before the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to apply for and receive the subsidies and concessional loans offered by the Japanese government in 2020. Firms with low credit scores are not necessarily zombies, which are defined to be the firms that are non-viable but kept alive by assistance from creditors and/or government. The result suggests that the government assistance may have also subsidized some poorly performing firms that were not yet zombies before the pandemic.
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Speaker
Takeo HOSHI, Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo
Co-authors:
Daiji KAWAGUCHI, Professor, Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo
Kenichi UEDA, Professor, Faculty of Economics (Graduate School of Economics / Graduate School of Public Policy), The University of Tokyo
Discussant:
Yingyi QIAN, Chair Professor, Department of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
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Registration
Please register in http://abfer.org/events/abfer-events/212:webinarseries2021reg.
The webinar will be livestreamed at Xueshuo (https://www.55xueshuo.com/#/abfer?l=en) (The livestreaming is supported by Tsinghua PBCSF)
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About the Webinar
Financial market development goes hand-in-hand with economic growth. The development of China's capital markets in terms of size, regulations, capability, and efficiency has been impressive. China may now even lead globally in some dimensions, notably e-payments systems. Yet, China's capital markets are still a work-in-progress facing both generic and unique challenges. Other Asian capital markets have even greater uneven development. Some in advanced Asian economies have acquired globally acclaimed reputation and capabilities while various regulatory and structural weaknesses dwarf others. Corporations and investors have been inclined to arbitrage cross-border regulatory and developmental gaps; so the very uneven status of capital markets across Asia is a policy issue for the governments in the entire region and perhaps globally. Analysing the positive and negative lessons in the functioning of Asia's capital markets, and identifying reforms and applications of technology that could further improve Asian capital markets' allocation efficiency, financial inclusion, and forewarning against reforms that might cause problems can benefit practitioners, policymakers and researchers, and can contribute significantly to overall prosperity.
The ABFER and the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute China (BFI-China), in collaboration with National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Department of Economics, CUHK-Shenzhen and Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance (Tsinghua PBCSF), hope to provide a virtual network to benefit researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from Asia and beyond.
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Event Website: https://abfer.org/events/abfer-events/webinar-series/278:webinarseries-cmd-14