| Dear readers,
Data is the fuel of the digital economy, enabling new business models, driving innovation and fundamentally changing decision-making processes. But how can real added value be created from the flood of data – and who benefits from it?
The new issue of ZEW Monthly on the topic of “Data” shows why more health apps do not necessarily mean better quality, how the Digital Markets Act reaches its limits when it comes to market definition and how companies are increasingly protecting themselves against cyberattacks.
We are taking a short summer break from our newsletter, but we will be back in September with the next issue of ZEW Monthly.
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↗ DIGITAL MARKETS ACT: CRITICISM OF MARKET DEFINITIONS
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| On 4 October 2021, all services of the tech giant Meta – including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook – experienced a global outage lasting around six hours. A recent study by ZEW Mannheim, using high-resolution tracking data from the USA and Spain, is the first to comprehensively analyse how digital consumer behaviour changed during and after the outage. The results of the study indicate potential for improvement in the implementation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and other similar regulatory initiatives. “Our investigation is a case study that provides detailed insights into user behaviour,” adds ZEW researcher Sebastian Valet.
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| More about the study
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↗ MORE HEALTH APPS, BUT LITTLE IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY
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| In 2020, Germany became the first country in the world to introduce a structured reimbursement pathway for digital health applications, or DiGAs (Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen), within its statutory health insurance system. This created a new business model for health apps. A new study by ZEW economist Sabrina Schubert and others is the first to examine the effects of the reimbursement model on the overall market for health apps – not just on the approved DiGAs themselves. The study does show a clear increase in the number of German-language health apps, but not in the number of high-quality apps that could qualify as DiGAs.
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| More about the study
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↗ COMPANIES INSURE AGAINST CYBERATTACKS
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| Companies in Germany are increasingly taking out cyber insurance to protect themselves against potential damages caused by cybercrime. This is a finding of a recent representative ZEW survey of Germany-based companies in the information economy and manufacturing sector. “Almost one in two companies in the sectors we surveyed has cyber insurance to protect against cyberattacks and the damage they may cause. Nevertheless, the prevalence of such insurance varies significantly depending on the industry and the company size,” explains Daniel Erdsiek, head of the survey.
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| More about the study
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| | ↗ ECONOMIC TOPICS GAINED ATTENTION ONLY AFTER THE ELECTION
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| In the run-up to the federal election, economic topics played only a minor role on the short messaging service Bluesky. However, following the election, the number of posts related to the economy rose significantly. This is the result of a new analysis by ZEW Mannheim, which evaluated more than 90,000 short messages posted on Bluesky. Only five per cent of the relevant posts before the election addressed economic topics. After the federal election, the proportion of posts related to economic topics on Bluesky more than doubled.
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↗ SCHOOL PEERS BOOST INCOME AND CAREER
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| Labour earnings increase if your schoolmates in your cohort were gritty, in other words persistent and passionate. A study conducted by ZEW Mannheim in collaboration with Cardiff Business School shows that being in a cohort with gritty schoolmates has a positive influence on one’s own success – even far beyond graduation and into adulthood. People from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in particular benefit from this effect. “Being gritty means to have a powerful motivation to achieve an objective. Grit is a personality trait that describes a person’s perseverance of effort combined with their passion for a particular long-term goal,” explains Effrosyni Adamopoulou, co-author of the study.
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| More about the study
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↗ SUCCESSFUL YES! REGIONAL FINAL – TWO ZEW TEAMS TAKE THE LEAD
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| A full house at ZEW and many happy faces: On 24 June 2025, the preliminary round for the South-West region of Germany’s largest school competition for students in Years 10-13 took place at ZEW for the ninth time. In summery weather, over 130 young people engaged in discussions on climate change and the energy transition, economic education and public infrastructure in Germany, presenting solutions they had developed themselves. As always, they were supported in advance by researchers from the participating institutes. After an intense and exciting day, two teams mentored by ZEW came out on top, securing their tickets to the national final in Hamburg, which will take place from 23 to 25 September 2025.
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| More about the topic
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↗ ZEW INVOLVED IN DFG-FUNDED CLUSTER OF EXCELLENCE TRANSFORM
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| On 22 May 2025, the German Research Foundation (DFG) published the complete list of funded Clusters of Excellence. Among them is the Munich Center for Transformative Technologies and Societal Change (TransforM), which will receive multi-million euro funding over a period of seven years. “With TransforM, we are creating a unique space for interdisciplinary exchange on the societal impacts of technological change. The funding from the German Research Foundation is a recognition of our work so far and a powerful impetus for future social science research on innovation,” says ZEW economist Hanna Hottenrott.
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| More about the topic
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“Trump 2.0”: New Tariffs, Old Risks. In an interview with the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) from April 2025, ZEW President Achim Wambach explains why tariffs tend to harm the US economy, what could be the global consequences of a renewed trade conflict with China and what opportunities this may offer for Europe.
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| Read the full opinion piece
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| REVIEW
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| ↗ 23RD CONFERENCE ON THE “ECONOMICS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES”
Digital Markets, AI and the Platform Economy in the Spotlight at International ZEW Conference
The ZEW Research Unit “Digital Economy” hosted the 23rd Conference on the “Economics of Information and Communication Technologies” in Mannheim on 26 and 27 June 2025. 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.
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| ↗ EUROPEAN WORKSHOP ON MARKET DESIGN
Researchers Discuss Current Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Market Design
On 16 and 17 June 2025, ZEW organised the fifth edition of the European Workshop on Market Design in collaboration with ENS Paris-Saclay, Rice University, the University of Cologne and the University of Münster. The event brought together renowned international researchers in Mannheim to present their latest research on market design issues. Poster sessions also provided a platform for young researchers to showcase and discuss their work. This year's focus was on theoretical analyses spanning a wide range of applied and fundamental issues.
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| ↗ 2025 PUBLIC FINANCE CONFERENCE
European Finances in Focus: Need for Reform and Prospects
ZEW held its annual Public Finance Conference, sponsored by the Arbeitskreis für Europäische Integration e.V., on 22 and 23 May 2025. Renowned academics and policymakers from Germany and abroad came together in Mannheim to discuss current issues of public finance and political economy. The future of the EU budget took centre stage this year.
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| | | | → CONTACT FOR QUESTIONS OR SUGGESTIONS ON THE CONTENT | |
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| | | | | ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research
L7, 1 · 68161 Mannheim
Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-01
E-mail: zewmonthly@zew.de
Website: www.zew.de
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| | | | | Executive Directors:
Professor Achim Wambach, PhD; Claudia von Schuttenbach
Chair of the ZEW Supervisory Board:
Ministerial Director Dr. Hans Reiter
Registered Office: Mannheim
Local Court Mannheim HRB 6554
USt-IdNr.: DE188318292
Commitment to Data Protection
Detailed Legal Note
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