Christine McDaniel is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research focuses on international trade, globalization and intellectual property rights. McDaniel previously worked at Sidley Austin, LLP, a global law firm, where she was a senior economist. She has held several positions in the U.S. government, including deputy assistant secretary in the Treasury Department and senior trade economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and has worked in the economic offices of the Commerce  Department, the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. International Trade Commission. McDaniel has written for the Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Hill and Forbes, among others, and her media appearances include CNBC, CBC, Bloomberg and MSNBC. McDaniel spent three years in Australia as deputy chief economist in Australia’s patent office. She has published in the areas of international trade, intellectual property and empirical trade analysis and modeling. She holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado and received her bachelor's in economics and Japanese studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.