Digital Markets, AI and the Platform Economy in the Spotlight at International ZEW Conference
Events
03.07.2025
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. Organised by Professor Irene Bertschek, Dr. Thomas Niebel, Dr. Dominik Rehse and Luca Sandrini, PhD, 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.
Over the course of 14 sessions, participants presented 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.
Keynotes by Imke Reimers (Cornell) and Tobias Salz (MIT)
The conference opened with a keynote by Tobias Salz, Associate Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who spoke 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, Associate Professor of Strategy and Business Economics at Cornell University, shed light on the welfare effects of consumer access to product information.
Scholarly exchange and networking
Between sessions, attendees took the opportunity to engage in in-depth academic discussions and networking. The conference dinner on the first evening, along with informal conversations on the second day, encouraged personal dialogue. A guided tour of the TECHNOSEUM in Mannheim provided a cultural highlight to round off the event.
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.
