Academic folklore has it that faculty of the same discipline seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but that the conversation turns to a conspiracy inevitably being wrought upon them by their university's administration.1 are not immune from such suspicions about the competence of academic administrators. If economists were running academe, they tend to believe, a good dose of competition, incentives, marginal analysis, and a realistic appreciation for opportunity costs would surely boost efficiency. Some economists do get to reallocate inputs on the basis of marginal revenue products, and some have actually met a payroll. A handful have worked their way into executive offices of Fortune 500 firms; others manage smaller consulting businesses. The largest concentration of economists in complex leadership and management positions, however, is in academe itself. These economists are the subject of this article. The belief of colleagues in the humanities and natural sciences that economists would make better administrators than incumbents seems widespread. The only exception to this faith in economists occurs, it seems, at institutions where an incumbent is already an economist! The esteem in which economists are held as prospective university administrators by noneconomists, however, seems frequently based on false premises. Consider this quotation from a conversation in the faculty lunchroom: Economists know all about money, and balancing (and cutting) a budget. They can read a balance sheet and an income statement, and know how to reconcile a checkbook. These proponents of economists-as-good-administrators have apparently never conducted empirical research to check, for example, the accuracy of their premises with a few economists' spouses who have struggled to untangle a checkbook bordering on chaos, or who have tried in vain to convince their economist partners that personal expenditures are also subject to a budget constraint. Seldom do the champions of economists as academic administrators argue that an understanding of economics provides an edge in recognizing trade-offs, tracing indirect effects of policy changes, being alert to alternatives, focusing on incremental benefits and costs, ignoring past mis