Digital Change expert Marianne Saam starts on 1 September at ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Kiel/Hamburg, 31 August 2021: Economist Marianne Saam starts on 1 September 2021 in the first professorship jointly established by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the University of Hamburg. The focus of her research at the ZBW will be on digital knowledge creation processes in the field of economics.

The ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is an information infrastructure for economics which has been actively conducting research for more than ten years through the appointment of professors jointly with universities. The multidisciplinary research group includes five professors and designs digital services for the ZBW. The common thread is Open Science.

With the 44-year-old economist Professor Marianne Saam the research group acquires an expert for digital transformation. Her focus at the ZBW will be to study how economic knowledge can be translated into societal and political discourse and the role of digital media and infrastructures in this.

Marianne Saam assumes on 1 September 2021 the chair of Digital Economics at the University of Hamburg. The focus of her research is on the role of knowledge and digital technology in the economic process. She studies the effects of the digital transformation on innovation and sustainable growth, and also the use of digital technologies in knowledge creation processes about economic topics.

Marianne Saam studied at Goethe University in Frankfurt on Main, where she also gained her PhD, and spent time in Paris and Louisiana. From 2005 to 2017, she headed various research projects at the department of “Digital Economy” at the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim. She has published papers in renowned journals such as the Review of Economics and Statistics. In 2014, she qualified as a professor at Goethe University. From 2017 until 2021, she held a chair at Ruhr University Bochum. On 1 September 2021 she takes the chair of “Digital Economics” at the University of Hamburg and and heads the programme division “Economic Research Interface” at the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

Marianne Saam describes her goal as: “I’m interested to see how different economic points of view can be integrated into a certain kind of consensus without which policy consultancy can be difficult. In this context it is exciting to see how scientists, but also users of economic information, handle dissent in research, depending on their use of information and communication media. I want to participate in the creation of open economics for societal transformation.”

More information about Professor Marianne Saam

More information about research at the ZBW