On 26 and 27 June 2025, the ZEW Research Unit “Digital Economy” hosted the 23rd Conference on the “Economics of Information and Communication Technologies” in Mannheim. The event brought together around 80 researchers from Germany and abroad to discuss current contributions in the field of the digital economy. The high level of interest in the conference was reflected in the nearly 120 submissions received.
In 14 parallel sessions, participants presented their current research on a wide range of topics from generative artificial intelligence, algorithms and digital markets via platform economics and social media to data-based experiments and questions of regulation. For many years, the conference has ranked among the leading academic events in this research area. On the first conference day, Tobias Salz (MIT), gave a keynote lecture about the sources of market power in online search engines and presented the findings of a field experiment. On the second day, the keynote by Imke Reimers (Cornell University) shed light on the welfare effects of consumer access to product information.
Between sessions, attendees took the opportunity to engage in in-depth academic discussions and networking. The next conference is already scheduled on 25 and 26 June 2026. ZEW will once again welcome international experts to discuss developments in digital markets and technologies.