Alfred Edward Kahn (October 17, 1917 – December 27, 2010) was an American economist and political advisor who specialized in regulation and deregulation.

Before World War II, he also worked for policy research organizations and government agencies in Washington, including the Brookings Institution and the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department.

Convinced that certain administration policies would lead to a depression, but having been chided for using the term, he began saying that the economy would "become a banana."

He served on many private boards on commissions addressing regulated and deregulating industries such as electricity, telecommunications, and transportation.

A seminar room in the Lincoln Hall Music Library of Cornell University is named in his honor.

In addition to his professorship at Cornell, Kahn sang baritone in university productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas from 1964 until retiring from the stage in 2000; he did a particularly fine turn as the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe in the early 1970s.

Admitting that he was no expert on airplanes or the fine details of the industry, Kahn once said "I can't tell one plane from the other.

[8] Kahn's strong advocacy of deregulation stemmed largely from his understanding as an economist of marginal-cost theory.

As one analyst put it, Kahn "set to work with … other progressives" including Senator Edward Kennedy, future Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader to "dismantle anti-consumer cartels that had been sustained by government regulation.

"[9] At the same time the CAB was disbanded, as deregulation of commercial air fares made the agency no longer necessary.