Alfred Bonne was born in 1899 in Nuremberg, Germany. He studied at the universities of Erlangen, Munich, and Frankfurt, as well as at the College of Business and Social Sciences in Nuremberg. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Munich in 1923 and immigrated to Eretz Yisrael (Mandatory Palestine) in 1925. Bonne served as the Director of the Statistical Department of Keren Hayesod from 1927 to 1931 and worked as a researcher and later as Director of the Economic Research Institute of the Jewish Agency from 1935 to 1951. He joined the senior faculty of the Hebrew University in 1945, and chaired the newly established Department of Economics in its first decade (1949-1959). From 1955 to 1958, Bonne served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In his role as Dean he initiated the establishment of Business Administration studies at the Hebrew University.

His primary research areas included the economy and society of Israel and the Middle East, as well as development economics.

Alfred Bonne passed away in Jerusalem in 1959.