The Digital Economy: Data, Algorithms, Platforms 2400-ZEWW1041

The digital revolution is not only about new technologies. It is transforming the foundations of the modern economy. Digital systems are changing how firms operate, how markets are organized, how people work and consume, how states govern, and how global economic relations evolve. In this new environment, competitive advantage depends not only on capital, labor, and scale, but increasingly on data, algorithms, digital infrastructures, and the ability to operate within networked ecosystems.

This course offers a structured and accessible introduction to the digital economy as a new economic order shaped by data, artificial intelligence, automation, and platforms. Rather than treating technology as a collection of tools, the course approaches it as a set of mechanisms that reorganize production, coordination, value creation, and decision-making across the economy. Students will learn how digital transformation affects firms, consumers, workers, public institutions, and international economic relations, and why these changes matter for both economic performance and social outcomes.

A central objective of the course is to help students understand the distinctive logic of the digital economy and how it differs from the industrial economy. The course introduces key concepts such as datafication, algorithmization, platformization, digital business models, Industry 4.0, digital consumption, and digital globalization. Students will examine how data becomes an economic resource, how algorithms increasingly shape prediction and coordination, and how platforms create new market structures based on network effects, interoperability, and control over data flows.

The course also emphasizes that digital technologies do not simply create opportunities. They also generate new risks, inequalities, dependencies, and regulatory challenges. Students will therefore develop the ability to critically assess both corporate strategies and public policies in the digital era. They will explore questions such as: How do digital platforms transform competition? How does automation change work and employment? What does it mean for a state to govern through data? How are global trade and international cooperation changing in a world structured by digital infrastructures, standards, and geopolitical tensions around technology?

The thematic scope of the course includes several interconnected areas. It begins with the technological foundations of the fourth technological revolution and introduces core and enabling technologies such as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, and the Internet of Things. It then moves to the concept of the digital economy itself, focusing on the shift from digitization to datafication and on the growing role of data as a factor of production. Further sections examine transformations in markets, production, labor, consumption, the state, and globalization. Topics include digital platforms and network effects, Industry 4.0 and intelligent production systems, gig work and digital labor markets, personalized and platform-mediated consumption, digital government, AI policy, and the growing role of data governance, standards, and interoperability in the global economy.

The course draws on current academic research as well as empirical insights from research projects conducted at DELab UW. It combines conceptual clarity with real-world relevance and gives students tools for understanding not only what is changing, but how and why these changes are unfolding. Particular attention is paid to building analytical skills, conceptual precision, and the ability to interpret technological change in broader economic and institutional terms.

The course is taught by Professor Katarzyna Śledziewska, Director of DELab UW, whose research focuses on the impact of digital transformation on the economy, firms, labor markets, and global processes. As a result, the course combines academic perspective with practical experience from research and applied projects carried out in cooperation with businesses and public institutions.

This course is intended for students who want to go beyond everyday use of digital tools and develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms shaping the contemporary economy. It is for those who want to understand not only technologies themselves, but the broader transformations they trigger in markets, organizations, work, and society.