Editors shape the development of an academic discipline, our understanding of the world, and academic careers. However, little is known about them. We examine a panel of editors of 108 economics journals from 1990 to 2011 to describe the main characteristics of editors in economics (publications, citations, network characteristics, PhD granting institution, gender, nationality) and to estimate the main factors shaping the probability of becoming an editor. We find that the main determinants to become an editor are past research output and citations and distance to an editor in the co-authorship network.