A Policy Space for Optimising the Benefits of Digitalisation for Economic Growth, Employment and Prosperity

Digital technologies fundamentally call into question existing market mechanisms, economic policy instruments, structures as well as economic and social interactions. While in traditional markets the prices of goods and services have the central allocation function, the connection between price and value in the data-driven economy is largely resolved. The reason for this lies in the specific cost structure, which is due to high fixed costs and at the same time expresses low marginal costs (near zero). This cost structure favours the monetary (almost) free scaling of digital products and services on "platform markets". In the digital economy, power over data forms the decisive competitive factor. In extreme cases, this results in (natural) monopolies. Based on six thematic analyses (Macroeconomics, Public Sector, Competition, Space, Social Security, Environment and Energy), the findings are condensed into three meta-hypotheses, which set the scope for making the most of the benefits of digitisation for economic growth, employment and prosperity: 1 The "new" economy is an economy of digital data ("digitalism"). 2. Existing structures break up ("structure break"). 3. New structures manifest in extremes ("polarisation").