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

The Police as Gatekeepers of Information: Immigration Salience and Selective Crime Reporting

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 17 October 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first floor - TSE building)

  • Speaker or organiser Violeta I. Haas

Détails

Past

Using network-structured economic games to study human cooperation, animus, and reputational dynamics in ecologically valid contexts

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 14 October 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

Détails

Past

How Cultural Diversity Drives Innovation: Surnames and Patents in U.S. History

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 30 September 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Jonathan Schulz

Détails

Past

The disjunction effect: inferring violations of classical decision theory and probability calculus

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 26 September 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Alexandros Gelastopoulos

Détails

Past

The Evolutionary Ecology of Cooperation: Insights from Hadza Hunter-Gatherers

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 23 September 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Alyssa Crittenden

Détails

Past

Impacts of alpha-alliances on human society and psychology

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 19 September 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Richard Wrangham

Détails

Past

Generational Trends in Wealth Accumulation and Wealth Inequality: Comparing Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials in Germany and the United States

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 16 September 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

Détails

Past

Workshop on the Political Economy of Autocratic Rule & Democratic Backsliding

  • Workshop

  • Date From 23 to 24 June 2025

  • Place Toulouse, TSE/IAST Building

Détails

Past

Electoral Responses to Local Cooperations with Radical-Right Parties

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 13 June 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 - (First floor -TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Violeta I. Haas

Détails

Past

The cognitive foundations of moralistic culture

  • Seminar

  • SBS Department Seminar

  • Date 3 April 2025

  • Place Auditorium 6 (Level 3)

  • Speaker or organiser Léo Fitouchi

Détails

Past

Migration and the making of the English middle class

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 1 April 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford University)

Détails

Past

Natural selection on environmentally-mediated social behaviours under ecological inheritance

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 25 March 2025

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Charles Mullon

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

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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