Students get acquainted with economic concepts related to the digital economy and can infer the main differences between the traditional economy and the ‘new’ economy. They recognize the different fields of economics which are affected by digitization and identify the problems related to the technical change the world is experiencing. Students are able to gather existing research results and relate them to data and observations. Students are enabled to develop a viewpoint on the impact of digitization on the economy. Students exchange ideas and discuss and assess different economic concepts/models. Transfer of ability to prepare and present obtained results orally and in writing.

Contents
• Macroeconomics: Topics in Digitization
o Measurement bias in GDP – evolution or revolution?
o What are the drivers of long-term growth – technical progress and labor productivity?
o Different types of technical progress – labor vs capital
o Digitization and labor demand – are we getting richer?
o Skill bias – the big divide?
o Digitization and the Monetary System – will the central bank be obsolete?
• Microeconomics: Topics in Digitization
o Digital goods as public goods – why does Firefox exist?
o Consumption of digital goods – network effects
o Pricing of digital goods – natural monopolies
o Systems Competition – standard wars
o Superstar firms – one for all?
Applied methods
• Models
Stylized macroeconomic growth models, profit maximization, heterogeneous labor, critical mass
• Quantitative
National accounts system, deflation, ad-hoc filter, growth simulations, correlation, growth accounting, data organization
• Qualitative
Interpretation and discussion in small groups, expert presentation
Teaching and Learning methods
• Tuition in seminars, project work, group projects, presentations

• Shapiro, Carl and Hal Varian, Information Rules, Harvard Business School Press, 1999
• Knieps, Günter, Network Economics, Springer Texts in Business and Economics, 2015
• Brynjolfsson, Eric and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, Norton & Company, 2016
• Introduction of further literature during seminars