Haim Barkai was born in Dresden, Germany in 1925 and immigrated to Eretz Yisrael (Mandatory Palestine) with his parents in 1933. He completed his master’s studies in economics at the Hebrew University and earned a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics  and Political Science (LSE). Upon receiving his doctorate in 1958 he joined the Hebrew University’s Department of Economics. Barkai served as Head of the Department from 1965 to 1968 and as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 1976 to 1980. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Bank of Israel and President of the Israel Economic Association. In 1981 he was awarded the Peretz Naftali Prize in Economic and Social Sciences for his book Growth Patterns of the kibbutz economy.

His research interests were: the history of economic thought; the Kibbutz economy; the economic history of Israel’s early statehood, and of its monetary system and the Bank of Israel; the development and macroeconomic implications of Israel’s social insurance system.

Haim Barkai passed away in Jerusalem in 2006.