Harvey J. Levin

Who was Harvey J. Levin?

Harvey Joshua Levin was an American economist. He was university research professor in the Department of Economics at Hofstra University, Augustus B. Weller Professor of Economics at Hofstra, and founder and director of its Public Policy Workshop. He was also a senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research.

Levin is generally considered the first economist to propose the auctioning of broadcast frequencies as a means of allocating the airwaves as a natural resource. His work anticipated the evolution of television, satellites, cellular telephones, electronic remote boxes and wireless internet, and their demands on increasingly congested airwaves.

He consulted for the President's Office of Telecommunications Management, the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC's Public Advisory Committee on the World Administrative Radio Conferences, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the General Accounting Office, the Committee for Economic Development, the Department of Justice/Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission/Bureau of Economics.