Public Affairs Faculty

Clinton V. Oster Jr. Professor and Associate Dean for Bloomington Programs Ph.D., Harvard University, 1978

Clinton V. Oster Jr. is Professor and Associate Dean for Bloomington Programs. Professor Oster's current research centers on air traffic management and aviation infrastructure, aviation safety, airline economics and competition policy, and environmental and natural resource policy. His most recent book is Managing the Skies: Public Policy, Organization, and Financing of Air Navigation with John S. Strong forthcoming from Ashgate Press. He has also co-authored four books on aviation safety and various aspects of the U.S. airline industry's adaptation to de-regulation: Why Airplanes Crash: Aviation Safety in a Changing World, published by Oxford University Press in 1992, Deregulation and the Future of Intercity Passenger Travel, published by MIT Press in 1987, Deregulation and the New Airline Entrepreneurs published by MIT Press in 1984, and Airline Deregulation: The Early Experience published by Auburn House in 1981. He has also published a textbook American Public Policy Problems: An Introductory Guide with Charles F. Bonser and Eugene McGregor and published by Prentice Hall in 2000. His research on transportation has appeared in such journals as: Transportation Journal, Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Logistics and Transportation Review, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, Transportation Quarterly, Transportation Research, Transportation Research Record, International Journal of Transport Economics, Growth and Change, and Policy Studies Journal.

Professor Oster has served on seven special study committees and four expert panels for the National Academy of Science and has chaired three of those committees and one of the panels. He currently chairs the Transportation Research Board’s Committee for The Study of Traffic Safety Lessons from Benchmark Nations and recently served on TRB’s Expert Panel on the Status of U.S. Air Traffic Control Modernization. He is a member of the National Aviation Advisory Group of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and of the Aviation Network on Aviation Research and Policy for the Dutch Ministry of Transport. Dr. Oster served as Research Director for the Aviation Safety Commission in 1987-88 and is former Director of Indiana University's Transportation Research Center. He has won both graduate and undergraduate teaching awards at Indiana University. He has served as an expert witness for both the Environment and Natural Resource Division and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He has been a consultant on aviation and other transportation issues to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, state and local governments, and private sector companies in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Australia. He is also an accident investigator for the Indy Racing League. Professor Oster received a B.S.E. from Princeton University, an M.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Recent Publications

Clinton V. Oster Jr. and John S. Strong. Managing the Skies: Public Policy, Organization, and Financing of Air Navigation. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing. (Forthcoming.)

Clinton V. Oster Jr. and John S. Strong. (2007). “Financing Issues in Air Navigation Service Providers,” in Essays on Air Navigation: Flying Through Congested Skies. Montreal: McGill University Center for Research of Air and Space Law.

Clinton V. Oster Jr. and John S. Strong. (2006). Reforming the Federal Aviation Administration: Lessons from Canada and the United Kingdom. Washington: The IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Clinton V. Oster Jr, and John S. Strong. (2006). “The Evolution of U.S. Domestic Airline Route Networks since 1990.” Transportation Research Record: The Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1951.

Clinton V. Oster Jr. and John S. Strong, “Competition and Antitrust Policy.” (2001). Chapter 1 in Handbook of Airline Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Charles F. Bonser, Eugene B. McGregor, and Clinton V. Oster Jr. (2000). American Public Policy Problems: An Introductory Guide. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.