
Center for the Economics of the Internet
The core requirements for a well-functioning market are the same, whether on or off the Internet: clear property rights, clear contract rights, competition, and an absence of government interference. These simple but powerful ideas are rarely reflected in federal Internet-policy debates, however. Instead, federal agencies generally proceed from an assumption of “Internet exceptionalism”: a view of the Internet in which property rights, contract rights, and competition are unimportant; ordinary principles of economics do not apply; and government has a responsibility to regulate with unusual intensity—and without constraint.
The Internet plays an increasingly central role in American daily life. And the policy challenges it presents us are broad and varied: demands for ever faster broadband service; disincentives and impediments to Internet infrastructure investments; heightened concerns about privacy and the security of personal information; threats to the integrity of commercial transactions on the Internet; and regular controversies over the proper scope and depth of intellectual property rights protections.
Rejecting “Internet exceptionalism” as an ineffective and inappropriate approach to such problems—harmful to business and consumers alike, and corrosive of traditional boundaries separating America’s public and private realms—Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet pursues an energetic program of research and debate intended to highlight the continuing importance and utility of clearly defined property and contract rights in the digital sphere.
Center for the Economics of the Internet Advisory Board
Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Hudson Institute, Founder and Director
Robert M. McDowell, Hudson Institute
Viet Dinh, Georgetown University Law School
Richard Epstein, New York University School of Law
Robert Hahn, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford
Jerry Hausman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thomas W. Hazlett, George Mason University School of Law
Bruce Owen, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University
Greg Sidak, Criterion Economics
Christopher S. Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Policy Center News
Harold Furchtgott-Roth is quoted in The New Indian Express on the danger of Chinese-made phones on a 5G network.
Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Arielle Roth’s article, “How the FCC’s Proposed Privacy Rules Would Create a False Sense of Consumer Privacy” quoted in Forbes
Hudson’s event with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai written up in The Hill, PJ Media, Breitbart and Politico
Harold Furchtgott-Roth quoted in Deadline on the U.S. government spending millions to fund a CBS Kids show about postal inspectors
Harold Furchtgott-Roth’s event with software entrepreneur Alan Dabbiere written up in Opportunity Lives
Harold Furchtgott-Roth quoted in Washington Examiner on the FCC’s ruling that broadband providers are not entitled to First Amendment protections because they are “conduits, not speakers”
A Hudson Institute white paper on why the Copyright Office should be removed from the Library of Congress featured in The Hill
Robert M. McDowell’s letter to the editor on net neutrality published in the New York Times
Robert McDowell quoted in LA Times on the consequences of the FCC’s net neutrality ruling
Harold Furchtgott-Roth quoted in NewsMax Finance on the FCC’s net neutrality ruling
Rob McDowell quoted in National Journal on the increasing politicization of the FCC
Rob McDowell quoted in The Hill on lobbying during the FCC’s during the rule-making process
A Center for the Economics of the Internet event on the FCC’s decision on net neutrality written up in Daily Caller featuring Rob McDowell
Harold Furchgott-Roth quoted in AFP on classifying broadband as a public utility
Robert M. McDowell quoted in Los Angeles Times on the FCC’s decision on net neutrality
Robert M. McDowell quoted in the Wall Street Journal on FCC Chairman Wheeler’s proposed rules on net neutrality
Robert M. McDowell quoted in LA Times on FCC Chair Wheeler following President Obama’s orders on net neutrality
Harold Furchgott-Roth quoted in Marketplace on Obama’s attempts to regulate the internet
Robert M. McDowell quoted in Wall Street Journal on regulating the Internet
Harold Furchtgott-Roth featured on Multichannel News on the FCC and a potential “internet tax”
Robert McDowell quoted in U.S. News on the net neutrality debate
Robert McDowell quoted in Forbes Online on net neutrality
Robert M. McDowell quoted in Variety on the Supreme Court’s decision on Aereo
Robert McDowell quoted in The Wall Street Journal on the FCC and net neutrality
Robert McDowell quoted in Los Angeles Times on the new FCC Chairman
Robert M. McDowell quoted in The Wall Street Journal on internet governance
Robert McDowell quoted in AFP on internet governance
Robert McDowell quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Internet freedom
Robert M. McDowell quoted in the New York Times on the FCC and Net Neutrality
Robert McDowell appointed to high-level international panel on the future of Internet governance.
Featured
Experts

Harold Furchtgott-Roth
Director, Center for the Economics of the Internet

Robert M. McDowell
Senior Fellow

Kirk R. Arner
Legal Fellow, Center for the Economics of the Internet

Michael O'Rielly
Visiting Fellow
Events
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Harold Furchtgott-Roth on WBUR's Here and Now, May 17, 2017

What Did Trump and Tech Leaders Discuss?, Bloomberg, December 14, 2016

Should China Control the Internet?, Wall Street Journal Video, October 26, 2016
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