Digital Economics

Research on the creation of economic knowledge in digital environments

Economic research today is mostly conducted digitally. Researchers search for and read texts online, access data on the internet, collaborate with co-authors in online text editors and disseminate their reseach findings in online workshops or blogs. Digital research environments offer particular opportunities for Open Science practices that remain largely unused.

Digital Economics addresses the question of how researchers make use of digital resources under the conditions of established institutional targets and scarce human attention. It uses empirical methods, involves the economics community as users, and provides impulses for evolving ZBW services.

Key research topics are:

  • Uptake of Open Science practices and the potentials for this, e.g.
    • acquisition and importance of information literacy
    • digital knowledge creation processes within the economics community and beyond.

The research is multidisciplinary in nature and benefits from close collaboration with other research groups at the ZBW.