Alan Gin is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of San Diego. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and his Master's of Arts and Ph.D. degrees, both in Economics, from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His work experience includes stints with the Community Development Department of the County of Fresno and the Public Works Department of the City of Oxnard.

Professor Gin came to the University of San Diego in 1988, after having previous taught at Loyola Marymount University and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has taught undergraduate courses in Principles of Economics, Statistics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Urban Economics, Public Finance, Environmental Economics, Industrial Organization, Managerial Economics, and the Economic Development of Asia. Graduate-level courses taught include Statistics, Quantitative Methods, Managerial Economics, the Business Environment of Asia, and Doing Business with China. In 2001, he was awarded the USD Parents' Association Award of Excellence after being nominated by one of his students. He was voted "Professor of the Year" by the graduate business students at USD for the 2002 - 2003 academic year.

Professor Gin is one of the affiliated faculty members of the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate. His other research interests include local public finance, urban transportation, and the economy of San Diego. On the latter subject, he is best known for developing and publishing the University of San Diego’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators for San Diego County, a monthly report on the outlook for the local economy. Professor Gin’s insights on the local economy have made him a popular source for interviews, and he has given nearly 1,000 interviews to local and national media sources. He has been quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Daily Transcript, the San Diego Business Journal, and other publications. He has also been interviewed on KPBS, KFMB, KOGO, KSDO, and KCEO radio, and has made appearances on KFMB, KGTV, KNSD, KUSI, KSWB, and XETV television. For his work on forecasting the local economy, he has been named to the San Diego Business Journal's "Who's Who" list.

In addition to studying the local economy, Professor Gin also has an interest in the business environment of Asia in general and of greater China in particular. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Asian Business Association of San Diego and sits on the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Association of Southern California (San Diego Chapter). He was named as the Asian Business Association's Member of the Year in 2006 and its Business Leader of Year in 2007. He was also selected as the Asian Heritage Award Winner in Business Enterprise in 2006. He taught in the University of San Diego’s Study Abroad Programs in Hong Kong and Beijing/Shanghai, and has traveled extensively in the region. In March 1997, he married Ms. Theresa Leung, a Cathay Pacific Airlines flight attendant who is from Hong Kong. The couple have a daughter, Alesa, who was born in February 1998, and a son, Mark, who was born in August 2002. Both children have already made numerous trans-Pacific trips in their young lives.