Alan Gibbs was born in Christchurch, the son of Theodore Nisbet Gibbs and Elsie Gibbs.[1] His father was an accountant, tax adviser and businessman. He was chairman of a 1951 Royal Commission on Taxation. The family moved to Wellington in 1947 and Alan attended Wadestown Primary School, Wellesley College and Wellington College. He undertook three out of four years of an engineering degree at Canterbury University, before switching to economics, completing a BA in 1961. The following year he gained a MA in Economics from Victoria University of Wellington.