Theoretical Economics had its origins in a project initiated by Manfredi La Manna to establish a low-cost journal in economic theory. Patrick Bolton, Drew Fudenberg, David Levine, George Mailath, and Ariel Rubinstein started working with Manfredi in the early Fall of 2002. By the late Fall of 2002, the Board had assembled a group of coeditors: Narayana Kocherlakota, Bart Lipman, Georg Nöldeke, and Martin Osborne. This group worked together until mid-2004, when disagreements about the nature of the project led them to split from La Manna and start work on setting up an Open Access journal.

At that point, Ted Bergstrom, Ed Green, and Preston McAfee joined Jeff Ely, Drew Fudenberg, David Levine, Bart Lipman, George Mailath, and Ariel Rubinstein on the Executive Board. Georg Nöldeke and Narayana Kocherlakota had dropped out of the project earlier because of the pressure of other commitments; Jeff Ely and Ed Green replaced them as coeditors. The group set up a nonprofit organization, the Society for Economic Theory, to run the journal, recruited a group of around 35 Associate Editors, and issued a call for papers in September 2005. The first issue was published in March 2006. A server at the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto hosted the journal’s editorial system, and the University of Toronto Library committed to serve as a permanent archive of published articles; the only other significant expense of producing the journal was the cost of typesetting, which was covered by a modest submission fee (US$75.00).

Martin Osborne was the editor until June 30, 2013. The other members of the original group of coeditors were Jeff Ely, Ed Green, and Bart Lipman; Debraj Ray joined the group in July 2008.

At about the same time the journal started publication, the Econometric Society began considering running journals in addition to Econometrica. Eventually the Society decided to run two additional journals, and approached the Executive Board of Theoretical Economics regarding its taking over the journal. An agreement was finalized on December 25, 2008, and the first issue of the journal published under the auspices of the Econometric Society appeared in January 2010.

Martin J. Osborne, 2005–2013

• Gadi Barlevy, 2010–2014
• Jeffrey C. Ely, 2005–2010
• Edward J. Green, 2005–2010
• Faruk Gul, 2011–2015
• Johannes Hörner, 2010–2016
• Narayana Kocherlakota, 2009
• Barton L. Lipman, 2005–2011
• Nicola Persico, 2011–2015
• Debraj Ray, 2008–2011

• George-Marios Angeletos, 2007–2008
• Susan Athey, 2005–2008, 2009–2012
• Pierpaolo Battigalli, 2005–2015
• Dirk Bergemann, 2005–2009
• Patrick Bolton, 2005–2011
• Yeon-Koo Che, 2009–2012
• Olivier Compte, 2009–2011
• Jacques Crémer, 2005–2008
• Martin W. Cripps, 2005–2009
• David Easley, 2005–2008
• Glenn Ellison, 2005–2008
• Jeffrey C. Ely, 2010–2016
• Haluk I. Ergin, 2009–2011
• Hanming Fang, 2009–2012
• Veronica Guerrieri, 2009–2015
• Johannes Hörner, 2008–2010
• Matthew O. Jackson, 2005–2008
• Ian Jewitt, 2005–2016
• Atsushi Kajii, 2005–2013
• Michihiro Kandori, 2005–2016
• Narayana Kocherlakota, 2005–2013
• Dirk Krueger, 2007–2008
• Guy Laroque, 2005–2008
• Jonathan Levin, 2009–2011
• Gilat Levy, 2010–2016
• George J. Mailath, 2005–2013
• Massimo Marinacci, 2005–2012
• Thomas Mariotti, 2013–2016
• Andreu Mas-Colell, 2006–2008
• R. Preston McAfee, 2005–2007
• Alessandro Pavan, 2010–2013
• Wolfgang Pesendorfer, 2005–2008
• Michael Peters, 2012–2015
• Michele Piccione, 2005–2012
• Andrea Prat, 2005–2006
• Roy Radner, 2005–2009, 2010–2013
• Debraj Ray, 2005–2008
• Yuliy Sannikov, 2008–2011
• Thomas J. Sargent, 2005–2009
• Mark Satterthwaite, 2005–2010
• Chris Shannon, 2005–2010
• Hyun Song Shin, 2005–2009
• Marciano Siniscalchi, 2005–2014
• Andrzej Skrzypacz, 2009–2011
• Joel Sobel, 2005–2012
• Ran Spiegler, 2005–2014
• Jeroen M. Swinkels, 2005–2013
• Timothy P. Van Zandt, 2009–2015
• Neil Wallace, 2005–2009
• Iván Werning, 2007–2010
• Mark L. J. Wright, 2009–2015