Behavior, Institutions and Development | Toulouse School of Economics

The group Behavior, Institutions, and Development brings together TSE researchers working on the fields of development economics, labor economics, political economy, economic history, law and economics, as well as behavioral and experimental economics. In particular, we focus on these three broad research agendas:

the multifaceted consequences of market frictions (e.g. regulation, limited information, financial constraints) and market structure (e.g. competition, vertical integration) on both individuals and firms in developing countries;
the co-determination and joint evolution of economic and political institutions and culture, with a focus on how these factors affect economic and social development, as well as inequality of resources and opportunities from a contemporary and historic perspective;
non-standard preferences and beliefs and their effects on individual decisions and societal outcomes, focusing among others on social influences, identity, belief formation and memory as well as on pro-social preferences and moral attitudes, and their evolutionary foundations.

Activities of the group

The group's activities include a weekly research seminar, two internal workshops that are open to both faculty and PhD students - one with a focus on topics in development economics (calendar) and one around themes in behavioral and experimental economics (calendar), as well as conferences on specific themes.

Many faculty members teach in the Master of Public Policy and Development.

While focusing on Economics, several members of the group are also affiliated with the Department of Social and Behavioral Science which hosts researchers from other disciplines (Law, Political Science, History, Psychology, and Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology).

Watch an example of research led within this group

Augustin Tapsoba, "Polygyny and the Economic Determinants of Family Formation Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa", Journal of the European Economic Association, 2026, forthcoming.

Victor Gay, Paula Gobbi, and Marc Goni, "Revolutionary Transition: Inheritance Change and Fertility Decline", Journal of Political Economy, 2026, forthcoming.

Francesco Agostinelli, Ciro Avitabile, and Matteo Bobba, "Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling", Journal of Political Economy, vol. 133, n. 2, 2025, doi:10.1086/732886.

Elliott Ash, Daniel L Chen and Suresh Naidu, "Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 141, n. 1, 2026.

Sultan Mehmood, Shaheen Naseer and Daniel L. Chen, "Transmitting Rights: Effective Cooperation, Inter-Gender Contact, and Student Achievement", American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2025.

Felipe Gonzalez, Stéphane Straub, Josepa Miquel-Florensa, and Mounu Prem, "The Dark Side of Infrastructure: Roads, Repression, and Land in Authoritarian Paraguay", The Economic Journal, vol. 135, n. 666, February, 2025, p. 653–669, doi: 10.1093/ej/ueae087.

Elliott Ash, Daniel L. Chen, and Arianna Ornaghi, "Gender Attitudes in the Judiciary: Evidence from U.S. Circuit Courts", American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, vol. 16, n. 1, January 2024, pp. 314–350.

Emmanuelle Auriol, Jean-Philippe Platteau and Thierry Verdier, "The Quran and the Sword", Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 21(5), October 2023, pp. 1772–1820.

Victor Gay, "The Intergenerational Transmission of World War I on Female Labour", The Economic Journal, Volume 133, Issue 654, August 2023, pp. 2303–2333, doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead029.

Mateo Montenegro, and Natalia Garbiras-Diaz, "All Eyes on Them: A Field Experiment on Citizen Oversight and Electoral Integrity", American Economic Review, vol. 112, n. 8, August 2022, pp. 2631–2668.

Matteo Bobba, Luca Flabbi and Santiago Levy, "Labor Market Search, Informality and Schooling Investments", International Economic Review, vol. 63, n. 1, February 2022, pp. 211–259, doi: 10.1111/iere.12536.

Emmanuelle Auriol, Julie Lassébie, Amma Panin, Eva Raiber and Paul Seabright, "God insures those who pay? Formal insurance and religious offerings in Ghana", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 135, n. 4, November, 2020, p. 1799-1848. doi: 10.1093/qje/qjaa015