Eli Dourado

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Eli Dourado

  • Director of Technology Policy Program
  • Research Fellow

Eli Dourado is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its Technology Policy Program. He specializes in Internet governance, intellectual property, cryptocurrency, Internet security, and the economics of technology. His popular writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Ars Technica, and Wired, among other outlets.

Dourado is a member of the State Department’s International Telecommunication Advisory Committee and has served on several U.S. delegations to UN treaty and policy conferences. In 2013, he won an IP3 award from Public Knowledge for the creation of WCITLeaks.org, a transparency website focused on the UN’s International Telecommunication Union.

Dourado is a PhD candidate in economics at George Mason University and received his BA in economics and political science from Furman University.

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Published Research

The True Story of How the Patent Bar Captured a Court and Shrank the Intellectual Commons

Eli Dourado | Sep 08, 2014
Libertarians intuitively understand the case for patents: just as other property rights internalize the social benefits of improvements to land, automobile maintenance, or business investment, patents incentivize the creation of new inventions, which might otherwise be undersupplied.

How Many Jobs Does Intellectual Property Create?

Eli Dourado, Ian Robinson | Aug 06, 2014
In the past two years, a spate of misleading reports on intellectual property has sought to convince policymakers and the public that implausibly high proportions of US output and employment depend on expansive intellectual property (IP) rights. These reports provide no theoretical or empirical evidence to support such a claim, but instead simply assume that the existence of intellectual property in an industry creates the jobs in that industry.

Cryptocurrency

Eli Dourado, Jerry Brito | Jul 01, 2014
This article explains what cryptocurrency is and begins to answer the new questions that it raises. To understand why cryptocurrency has the characteristics it has, it is important to understand the problem that is being solved. For this reason, we start with the problems that have plagued digital cash in the past and the technical advance that makes cryptocurrency possible. Once this foundation is laid, we discuss the unique economic questions that the solution raises.

Why the Cybersecurity Framework Will Make Us Less Secure

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Apr 17, 2014
This paper will describe the current dynamic provision of cybersecurity and explain how a technocratic solution like the Cybersecurity Framework could weaken this process and ultimately undermine cybersecurity.

Working Papers

Public Choice and Bloomington School Perspectives on Intellectual Property

Eli Dourado, Alexander Tabarrok | Nov 21, 2013
We mine two underexplored traditions for insights into intellectual property: the public choice or Virginia school, centered on James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, and the Bloomington or Institutional Analysis and Development school, centered on Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom. We apply the perspectives of each school to issues of intellectual property and develop new insights, questions, and focuses of attention. We also explore tensions and synergies between the two schools on issues of intellectual property.

Do High International Telecom Rates Buy Telecom Sector Growth?

Eli Dourado | Nov 30, 2012
The possible extension of the telephone system’s “sender-pays” rule to the Internet is a contentious international political issue under consideration at the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). This paper examines whether higher international telephone rates support or impede telecom sector growth in the receiving country. It uses data on international telephone rates from the US from 1992-2010 to explain growth in foreign telecom sectors during the same period.

Internet Security Without Law: How Service Providers Create Order Online

Eli Dourado | Jun 19, 2012
ISPs have borne significant costs to reduce malware, despite their lack of formal legal liability. Informal institutions perform much better than a regime of formal indirect liability. The fact that legal polycentricity is more widespread than is often recognized should affect law and economics scholarship.

Is There a Cybersecurity Market Failure

Eli Dourado | Jan 23, 2012
This paper finds that alleged cybersecurity market failures are, at a minimum, much smaller than they first appear and, consequently, that attempts to correct them through naive government regulation run the serious risk of doing more harm than good.

Charts

Abuse of Patent Venue Rules Reaches Record-Breaking Level

Eli Dourado | Mar 22, 2016
In 2006, more patent lawsuits were filed in the Eastern District of Texas than in any other federal judicial district. But EDTX was just getting started. By 2015, more than 9.5 times as many cases were filed in the courthouse in Marshall, TX, where two judges with a reputation for siding with patent plaintiffs preside.

Going Dark? Federal Wiretap Data Show Scant Encryption Problems

Andrea Castillo, Eli Dourado | Feb 26, 2016
These charts use data from the annual Wiretap Reports published by the Administrative Office of the US Courts to display the portion of total reported wiretap orders that have been undermined by encryption technologies from 2001 to 2014. (This dataset only examines domestic wiretap requests. Information relating to wiretap requests regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 is not available.) The charts show that, contrary to popular assumption, encryption technologies have only complicated a minuscule percentage of reported wiretap investigations over the past 15 years.

Venue Shopping Is Rampant in Patent “Troll” Litigation

Eli Dourado | Sep 22, 2015
Is East Texas the next Silicon Valley? If patent activity were a measure of innovation, you might think so. Marshall, TX, a city with a population of 23,523 located near the Louisiana border, is known to every patent attorney in the country for its prodigious volume of patent litigation. This chart shows the number of patent cases filed in federal district court in the Eastern District of Texas versus the average of the 93 other federal judicial districts in the first half of 2015, using data compiled by Lex Machina.

After the “Cybersecurity Sprint,” Material Weaknesses Persist Among Federal Agencies

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Aug 10, 2015
This week’s charts use data from three sources: a July 8 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled “Information Security: Cyber Threats and Data Breaches Illustrate Need for Stronger Controls across Federal Agencies,” the Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Report to Congress for FY 2014, and the White House’s “Cybersecurity Sprint Results” report from July 2015. The charts display reported federal material information security weakness and degree of compliance with prevailing federal cybersecurity standards in fiscal year (FY) 2014.

Agencies Fail 2014 Cyber Report Card and Report Record Number of IT Breaches

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Apr 29, 2015
This weeks’ charts use data from the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) FY 2014 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliance report to display the agency share, type, and number of reported federal information security incidents for FY 2014 and over time.

Dozens of Federal Cybersecurity Offices Duplicate Efforts with Poor Coordination

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Apr 14, 2015
This week’s chart uses data from federal websites and budget documents to display the federal offices whose missions are directly dedicated to cybersecurity monitoring, provision, and preparedness. Information in a 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, “Cybersecurity: National Strategy, Roles, and Responsibilities Need to Be Better Defined and More Effectively Implemented,” provided the names of several agencies and high offices tasked with coordinating both internal federal cybersecurity and public-private coordination.

The Number of Patents Has Exploded Since 1982, and One Court Is to Blame

Eli Dourado | Apr 07, 2015
This week’s chart shows the sharp increase in the number of patents over the past three decades, using data from the US Patent and Trademark Office to display the total number of patents that have been extended from 1900 to 2014.

Federal Cybersecurity Breaches Mount Despite Increased Spending

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Jan 20, 2015
This week’s charts use data from the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office to display total federal cybersecurity spending required by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) with the total number of reported information security incidents of federal systems from 2006 to 2013.

Policy Briefs

Do Consumer Drones Endanger the National Airspace? Evidence from Wildlife Strike Data

Eli Dourado, Samuel Hammond | Mar 14, 2016
Yet many drones weighing more than 250g are little more than toys. Do they really pose a risk to the airspace? To explore this question, we examine 25 years of data from the FAA’s wildlife strike database. Although aircraft collide with birds many thousands of times per year, only a tiny fraction of those collisions result in damage to the aircraft, much less human injuries or deaths. The most serious reported incidents typically involved flocks of large birds. Since the addition of UAS to the airspace is similar in many respects to an increase in the bird population, we conclude that the risk to the airspace caused by small drones (for example, weighing up to 2kg, or 4.41 pounds) flying in solitary formation is minimal.

Evaluating the Growth of the 1099 Workforce

Eli Dourado, Christopher Koopman | Dec 10, 2015
We report on new data received from the Internal Revenue Service that sheds light on the changes in independent contracting. Our data support the claim that there has been an increase in nontraditional employment, but the data refute the idea that this increase is caused by the sharing-economy firms that have arisen since 2008. Instead, we view the rise of sharing-economy firms as a response to a stagnant traditional labor sector and a product of the growing independent workforce.

“Information Sharing”: No Panacea for American Cybersecurity Challenges

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Jun 22, 2015
After briefly outlining the current cybersecurity information sharing proposals, we will examine the performance of the many similar programs that the federal government has operated for years. The government’s inability to properly implement previous information sharing systems even internally, along with its ongoing failures to secure its own information systems, casts doubt on the viability of proposed government-led information sharing initiatives to improve the nation’s cybersecurity. We will then examine the flawed assumptions that underlie information sharing advocacy before exploring solutions that can comprehensively address the nation’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Poor Federal Cybersecurity Reveals Weakness of Technocratic Approach

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo | Jun 22, 2015
This paper will review the laws and standards governing federal cybersecurity policy and will highlight how overlapping responsibilities and unclear lines of authority have accompanied increasing rates of federal information security failures. The paper will then describe how these systemic cybersecurity weaknesses demonstrate the federal government to be an especially poor candidate for managing national systems, and it will explain the shortcomings of a top-down, technocratic approach.
More Policy Briefs

Testimony & Comments

Creating an Environment of Permissionless Innovation for Unmanned Aircraft

Eli Dourado | Mar 10, 2016
We are at an exciting point in the history of unmanned aircraft. I think of drones as occupying a similar position now as the Internet did in the late 1980s. As members of this committee know, until 1989, use of the Internet for commercial purposes was generally prohibited. The removal of that prohibition resulted in an explosion of innovation, much of it completely unanticipated, that has persisted until today.

Registration and Marking Requirements for Small Unmanned Aircraft

Eli Dourado, Samuel Hammond | Jan 15, 2016
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued an interim final rule creating a new electronic registration system for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and requiring, for the first time, the registration of model aircraft operators. This comment highlights an omission in the agency’s alternative scenario analysis, questions some of the purported benefits of the rule, and points out some of the continuing legal shortcomings associated with the FAA’s approach. While we support the advent of a simple and streamlined registration system, we object to the extension of the registration requirement to model aircraft operators.

Clarification of the Applicability of Aircraft Registration Requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Eli Dourado, Samuel Hammond | Nov 06, 2015
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing to implement a national registration system for small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), the details of which are to be recom- mended by a task force no later than November 20. The stated aim of the registry is to assist in identifying owners and operators of UASs that violate the law and endanger safety, thereby closing a perceived gap in enforcement. This comment highlights several major procedural concerns, followed by an examination of whether the safety benefits of a registry are likely to outweigh the societal and budgetary costs.

Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Eli Dourado, Ryan Hagemann, Adam Thierer | Apr 24, 2015
The FAA must carefully consider the potential effect of UASs on the US economy. If it does not, innovation and technological advancement in the commercial UAS space will find a home elsewhere in the world. Many of the most innovative UAS advances are already happening abroad, not in the United States. If the United States is to be a leader in the development of UAS technologies, the FAA must open the American skies to innovation.
More Testimony & Comments

Research Summaries & Toolkits

Economic Perspectives: Cybersecurity Policy Reforms for the 21st Century

Eli Dourado, Andrea Castillo, Michael Wilt | Nov 09, 2015
Cybersecurity policy should refrain from imposing sweeping, expensive, top-down solutions that could increase rigidities of existing systems. The federal government can better protect American information systems by shoring up its own network vulnerabilities, supporting strong encryption techniques, and reforming laws to encourage security research and report- ing, so that the entities best positioned to do so can strengthen their own cybersecurity.

Media Clippings

Hack Attacks Spur Calls for Cyber Insurance

Eli Dourado | Sep 06, 2014
Outlet: The Hill

Google and Cisco Sign Patent Deal, Blast ‘Patent Privateering’

Eli Dourado | Feb 04, 2014
Outlet: The Washington Post

Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado's PiracyData.org Cited at Politico

Jerry Brito, Eli Dourado | Oct 15, 2013
Outlet: Politico

Bitcoin's Successors: From Litecoin to Freicoin and Onwards

Eli Dourado | Jun 25, 2013
Outlet: the guardian
More Media Clippings

Expert Commentary

The FAA Is Constantly Thwarting Innovation

Slate
By Eli Dourado |
Feb 17, 2016

We have not experienced the transformative changes in aviation that are so common in information technology. It’s not fair to lay all of the blame for this stagnation at the feet of the FAA—but it’s fair to place a good deal of it there.

State of the Union: Mercatus Center Experts Share Their Thoughts before Tonight's Event

By Omar Ahmad Al-Ubaydli, Brian Blase, Donald J. Boudreaux, Eli Dourado, Christopher Koopman |
Jan 12, 2016

With his last State of the Union address tonight, President Barack Obama has much to look back on over his past 8 years in office. Our experts have taken this time to reflect on some of the highlights he might bring up in his speech tonight.

The Government Is Rushing out an Ill-Conceived Plan to Regulate Consumer Drones

Vox
By Eli Dourado |
Nov 12, 2015

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration estimate that up to a million drones will be sold this holiday season, and it's making them very nervous. Let's face it: Some of these drone recipients — possibly even a few Vox readers — are likely to do something stupid with their new toys in the next few months.

Cable Companies Are Experimenting with Metered Data

Slate
By Eli Dourado |
Oct 20, 2015

As of Oct. 1, Comcast customers in a few small markets are now subject to metered data use. Households that use more than 300 gigabytes of data per month will have the choice to pay $10 for an extra 50 gigabytes or $30 per month for unlimited service. The cable giant joins the No. 4 player in the industry, Cox Communications, in offering tiers that vary in price depending on data use.
More Expert Commentary
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