Nahum Gross was born in Vienna, Austria in 1926 and immigrated to Eretz Yisrael (Mandatory Palestine) with his family in 1939. He completed his master's studies in economics at the Hebrew University in 1954 and subsequently taught in secondary schools. In 1962, Gross began his Ph.D. studies in economics at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in economic history. Upon receiving his doctorate in 1966, he joined the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University, where he established the modern economic approach to the study of economic history.

His primary research interests were: industrialization and growth in Habsburg Austria; the economic history of Israel in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the economy of the Yishuv during the British Mandate, and on the Israeli economy in its early years; and economic aspects in Herzl’s Zionist writing.

Nahum Gross passed away in Jerusalem in 2018.