Privatizing air traffic control is Tullock Lecture topic Feb. 27

Economist and long-time advocate for privatizing the nation’s air traffic control system, Dorothy Robyn, will speak at Clemson University on Feb. 27.

Robyn is a senior fellow at Boston University, a contributor to the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institutions, and held top policy positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations. She will deliver her Tullock Lecture, “Air Traffic Control Privatization: It’s the Economic Incentives, Stupid” from 5-6:30 p.m. in Tillman Hall’s Memorial Auditorium.

Robyn, whose lecture last fall was postponed due to weather, will take questions as part of the program. An informal reception will conclude the evening.

A proponent of improving air traffic control for more than 20 years, Robyn advocates privatization of the current system, a network of radar, navigation aids and more than 30,000 controllers who guide planes on the runways and in the skies. She says the current system is notoriously inefficient, however, subjecting passengers to long delays, wasting energy, and costing both flyers and airlines billions of dollars annually.

Robyn, who has also taught public policy at Harvard University, argues the air traffic control system is a technology-intensive service “business” that is hampered by budget rules, burdened with flawed financing and is micromanaged by Congress.

The Tullock Lecture series is sponsored by the Information Economy Project (IEP), housed in the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University. Refreshments and informal discussion will follow the lecture.

The IEP is directed by Thomas W. Hazlett, H.H. Macaulay Endowed Chair of Economics. For more information on the lecture or the activities of the IEP, go to https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/iep/index.html. Please direct any questions to Will Jackson wjacks4@g.clemson.edu.