Don Patinkin, the founder of modern analytical economics in Israel’s higher education, was born in Chicago in 1922.
He completed all his academic studies at the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in economics in 1947. Later that year the Hebrew University nominated him to a position of Lecturer in Economics. His teaching in Jerusalem was scheduled to begin in the 1948/49 academic year, but the outbreak of the War of Independence delayed the opening of studies at the university.
Patinkin and his wife, Deborah, immigrated to Israel in February 1949, and he joined the Hebrew University when studies resumed two months later. Patinkin developed the first curriculum in analytical economics at the Hebrew University, taught all its courses, and shaped the academic and personal profile of the Department of Economics during its formative years. He directed the Falk Institute (formerly the Falk Research Center) for Economic Research in Israel from 1957 to 1971. He served as Head of the Department of Economics from 1959 to 1963, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 1962 to 1966, and President of the Hebrew University from 1982 to 1986, concurrently holding the position of Rector from 1982 to 1985. He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities from 1963, a fellow and president of the Econometric Society, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary member of the American Economic Association, and the first President of the Israeli Economic Association. Patinkin was awarded the Rothschild Prize in Social Sciences in 1959 and the Israel Prize in Social Sciences in 1970. In 1992, upon reaching the age of 70, the Hebrew University established a Chair in Economics in his name. Nissan Liviatan, his distinguished student and close colleague, was the chair’s first incumbent.
His primary research interests were theoretical economics, focusing on bridging the classical economic approach with the Keynesian theory in the macroeconomic context of employment and money. He also explored the development of modern economic thought, concentrating on the evolution of Keynesian theory, and conducted empirical analyses of the Israeli economy, covering a wide range of its components and aspects during the first decade of statehood.
Don Patinkin passed away in Jerusalem in 1995.