David Levhari was born in Ramat Gan in 1935. He obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Upon receiving his doctorate in 1964, he joined the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University, and served as Head of the Department from 1975 to 1978, and as Director of the Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel from 1984 to 1988. Levhari was a Fellow of the Econometric Society and President of the Israeli Economic Association.

His primary research areas were economic growth theory, the economics of uncertainty, and the economics of organizations and economic hierarchy.
 

David Levhari passed away in Jerusalem in 2023.