Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

The natural continuation to create conditions to promote interdisciplinary research

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences is the natural continuation and consolidation of TSE’s initiative to create conditions to promote interdisciplinary research, instigated in 2011 by Nobel Prize laureate Jean Tirole through the creation of the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).  

The Department is the academic home both for economists – in behavioral economics, cultural economics, economic history, law and economics, and political economy – and for scholars in other social and behavioral sciences, such as evolutionary anthropology, evolutionary biology, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology.  

The aim is to foster groundbreaking interdisciplinary research, not only between economics and other disciplines, but also between other disciplines.   

The Department will also develop multi-disciplinary teaching programmes. 

In sum, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences provides a unique environment to push the frontiers of economics and several other disciplines within the unified scientific project on which IAST was built, namely  to study the behavior of human beings as evolved biological organisms who live in groups, form networks and coalitions, are governed by formal institutions, informal norms, and religious and cultural practices, produce and exchange scarce resources and are inspired by ideals and beliefs. 

The Department will keep close ties with IAST, notably through joint seminar series, and also through IAST’s Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow programs.

Job Opportunities

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) regularly offers jobs for Postdoctoral Researchers with a PhD in psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, or related disciplines.

Summer School 2026

The Toulouse Summer School in Quantitative Social Sciences at Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST) offers an interdisciplinary program in the social and behavioral sciences. The summer school is open to PhD students in economics and other disciplines. 

More information

Seminars and Conferences

Past

Trust in humans and AI from (non)utilitarian moral decisions

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 6 October 2023

  • Place AUDITORIUM 4 (FIRST FLOOR - TSE BUILDING)

  • Speaker or organiser Jim A. C. Everett

Détails

Past

Private Colonialism in Africa

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 5 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Elias Papaioannou

Détails

Past

If you can, you must. Information, utility, and loss aversion

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 3 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Lionel Page

Détails

Past

Social Institutions and State Reach: Examining Change in Gendered Land Rights in Southern Africa

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 29 September 2023

  • Place AUDITORIUM 4 (FIRST FLOOR - TSE BUILDING)

  • Speaker or organiser Lauren Honig

Détails

Past

Semi-Parametric Approach to Behavioral Biases

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 26 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 3 (Ground floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Avner Seror

Détails

Past

Evolutionarily stable networks

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 22 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Péter Bayer

Détails

Past

Input Sourcing in Lopsided Low-income Economies

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 21 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Jonas Hjort

Détails

Past

Studying relational chains in economic activities

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 19 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Michel Grossetti

Détails

Past

Theories of Autism and their Value for Understanding and Supporting Autistic People

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 15 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

Détails

Past

The Real State: Inside the Congo's Traffic Police Agency

  • Seminar

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences Seminar

  • Date 14 September 2023

  • Place Auditorium 5

  • Speaker or organiser Raul Sanchez de la Sierra

Détails

Past

The Biocultural Evolution of Technology

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 27 June 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Dietrich Stout

Détails

Past

Mental Models and Endogenous Learning

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 23 June 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Hakan Ozyilmaz

Détails

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Contact

Jean-François Bonnefon

Department Chair

Jonathan Stieglitz

Scientific Deputy Director

Kristin Michelitch

Teaching Deputy Director

See the publications list

Last news

“The State Facing Its Barbarians”: How Can Terrorism Be Turned Into Statistics?

  • Outreach

  • Corporate

  • IAST

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences

Jérôme Ferret has just published "L'État face à ses barbares" (The State Confronted by Its Barbarians) published by Hermann. A sociologist, he teaches the fundamentals of sociology to second-year undergraduates at…

Published on 2 November 2026

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Économie du désordre mondial (Economy of Global Disorder) : A Best-Seller That Fuels Public Debate

  • Corporate

  • Research

  • TSE Research

  • Development

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences

  • Economics

Erosion of multilateralism, strategic priorities, belief traps... As we begin the 2026 academic year, Jean Tirole and Karine Van der Straeten are contributing their insights to the public debate with the release…

Published on 19 October 2026

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