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Michael Hüther IW-Policy Paper No. 15 8. December 2016 Digitalisation: An engine for structural change: A challenge for economic policy

In this policy paper a classification for digital business models is developed, in order to analytically exploit the different scopes and consistently infer politico-economic need for action.

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A challenge for economic policy
Michael Hüther IW-Policy Paper No. 15 8. December 2016

Digitalisation: An engine for structural change: A challenge for economic policy

IW policy paper

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

In this policy paper a classification for digital business models is developed, in order to analytically exploit the different scopes and consistently infer politico-economic need for action.

Digitalisation is in everyone’s hands. During the last nine years the smartphone tremendously changed private lifestyle. Anytime and everywhere we are connected, we have options for decision making and controlling in real-time. Producer of hardware as well as software service provider of platforms are driving these current structural change’s aspects. However – although less visible publicly – digital transformation also includes traditional industry, this is what the buzzword “Industrie 4.0” stands for.

The political and public debate on necessary control of this transformation is as much hallmarked by the search for starting points as by heated demands for targeted competition law based interventions. In this context, it has to be noted that the digital transformation’s different aspects are neither adequately differentiated nor systematically captured. That is the task this contribution tackles. A classification for digital business models is developed, in order to analytically exploit the different scopes and consistently infer politico-economic need for action.

Download PDF
A challenge for economic policy
Michael Hüther IW-Policy Paper No. 15 8. December 2016

Michael Hüther: Digitalisation: An engine for structural change – A challenge for economic policy

IW policy paper

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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Economic and Structural Influences Drive a Trend Reversal
Klaus-Heiner Röhl / Gerit Vogt IW-Trends No. 4 5. December 2023

Corporate Insolvencies on the Increase

After a prolonged decline, the number of corporate insolvencies has begun to rise again. The slight increase in 2022 could be interpreted as a step towards normalisation after the sharp drop experienced during the 2020/21 Covid19 pandemic.

IW

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Michael Hüther / Hubertus Bardt / Cornelius Bähr / Jürgen Matthes / Klaus-Heiner Röhl / Christian Rusche / Thilo Schaefer IW-Policy Paper No. 7 17. September 2023

Industrial policy at the turn of the times

The current debate on industrial policy vacillates between the extreme positions of an orthodoxy of rejecting state action and a naive belief in the state's ability to control structural change.

IW

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