Michael E. Levine is a "Distinguished Research Scholar" at the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 School of Law. He has been involved in the world of air transportation and its regulation as a senior airline executive, an academic and a government official. He retired from Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...

 in 1999 to return to academic life.

Background

Levine holds a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree from Reed College

Reed College

Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...

 (1962) and an LLB degree from Yale Law School

Yale Law School

Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

 (1965). He did graduate work in economics at Yale and the University of Chicago.

Airline executive

As an airline executive, Levine served at Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...

 (1981–82) and Northwest (1992–99) as an Executive Vice President and was President and CEO of New York Air

New York Air

New York Air was a 1980s startup airline owned by Texas Air Corporation and based at LaGuardia Airport in Flushing, Queens, New York City.-History:...

 (1982–84), guiding that post-deregulation airline to its first profit. At Northwest, he was principally responsible for the commercial strategy and activities of the company, and for developing and executing Northwest's pioneering alliance strategy, including its joint venture with KLM and its alliance with Continental. At Continental, he had similarly broad responsibilities and was principally responsible for the realignment of its Micronesian system to serve Japan.

Academic

As an academic, he was an early advocate of interdisciplinary studies in law and economics and political science. A student of Nobel laureate Ronald H. Coase at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 and of Robert H. Bork, Ward S. Bowman and Friedrich Kessler

Friedrich Kessler

Friedrich Kessler was an American law professor who taught at Yale Law School , University of Chicago Law School, and University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He was a contract law scholar, but also wrote of trade regulation law...

 at Yale, Levine established an innovative program in law and social sciences at Caltech and U.S.C., while holding professorships at both institutions. He served as Dean of the Yale School of Management

Yale School of Management

The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The School offers Master of Business Administration and Ph.D. degree programs. As of January 2011, 454 students were enrolled in its MBA...

 (1988–92) and held professorial chairs at Caltech, Yale and USC

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. He has also been a member of the law faculties at Harvard (1999–2002) and Yale (2002–2005) and has been an academic visitor at MIT, the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

. Levine has done pioneering research on airline deregulation

Airline deregulation

Airline deregulation is the process of removing entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting, in particular, the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. In the United States, the term usually applies to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978...

, on the application of market mechanisms to airport congestion, on committees and agendas and on the origins of regulation and the behavior of regulatory agencies.

Government

As a government official, Levine was instrumental in bringing about airline deregulation. In 1978 and 1979, he served as General Director, International and Domestic Aviation, (the senior staff position at the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board) and devised many of the mechanisms and practices used to deregulate the industry.

Recognition

Levine has received recognition of his work. He was named among the ten most influential pioneers in the history of commercial aviation by Airfinance Journal, has received the Transportation Research Foundation’s Distinguished Transportation Researcher award for lifetime achievement, and was the recipient of the Civil Aeronautics Board’s Distinguished Service Award.

Controversy

Levine's deanship generated some controversy that was covered fairly extensively by the media. When Levine became dean, Yale's SOM was unable to attract a dean with a national reputation. President Schmidt was under pressure from the Yale Corporation

Yale Corporation

The Yale Corporation, sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.The Corporation comprises 19 members:...

to change it or close it. He recruited Levine, a regularly appointed holder of a professorial chair who was already a member of the SOM faculty, as dean. Together, they took actions designed to save the school and succeeded in doing so. Those changes infuriated faculty, although they were supported by many of the school's most prominent scholars. The aggrieved faculty and some student and alumni supporters protested the changes publicly.

No faculty contracts were terminated before they expired and no appointments or curriculum changes were made without faculty vote.