Born in Galați, he attended Vasile Alecsandri National College before enrolling in the law faculty of the University of Iași.
Subsequently, after the onset of the Communist regime, he worked at Bucharest's Economic Research Institute.
[2] The author of a copious body of work, he is considered to have introduced to Romania the systematic study of the history of economic concepts.
In addition, he researched political economy, economic history and public finance, and edited the complete works of Nicolae Bălcescu.
[1] An institute of the Romanian Academy dedicated to economic and social science research, located in Iași, is named after Zane.