Assorted readings for this week: financial markets, corporate finance, banking, financial services and digital economics

Here we are some recommended articles about financial markets, corporate finance, banking, financial services, digital economics regulation and finally an infographic about the 5G technology.

1. COVID-19, asset prices, and the Great Reallocation. Whether COVID-19 will trigger a massive reallocation of capital and labour is a key question for policymakers and investors alike. This column shows that asset markets reveal large cross-sectional differences in the repricing of industries before, during, and after the onset of COVID-19. Firms that are more resilient to social distancing significantly outperformed in the six years before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. Looking into the future, stock options imply that investors require significantly lower returns from more pandemic-resilient firms. Governments would be unwise to ignore these signals, directing public financial resources mainly to prop up ailing low-resilience firms (VoxEU).

2. Three degrees of separation: How to successfully execute divestitures. The seller’s focus on three key interrelated activities—defining, marketing, and disentangling—can help expedite the transfer of divested assets and increase total deal value (McKinsey).

3. Do contactless cards really change the way we pay? Central banks of cash-loving countries might still have some time to get ready for a cashless society (LSE Business Review).

4. Reshaping retail banking for the next normal. Retail banks have a prominent role to play in guiding the world toward economic recovery, while preserving the health of their organizations (McKinsey).

5. Designing regulation for digital platforms: Why economists need to work on business models. There is a developed public discourse on the need for more enforcement, regulation and legislation of digital platforms. Regulating ‘gatekeeper platforms’ has emerged as a major plank of the new European Commission mandate, with a consultation process underway this week for a plan to introduce both ex-ante regulation and a new market investigation tool with quasi-regulatory powers. This column asks how economists can contribute to rationally progressing the debate, so that it is not based on subjective priors, but uses applied theory to make testable predictions, and data to discriminate between theories (VoxEU).

6. 5G Revolution: Unlocking the Digital Age. This infographic breaks down the potential that 5G promises, and the immense opportunities stemming from its implications for smart tech and the Internet of Things (IoT) (Visual Capitalist).