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

Cooperation, Competition, and Social Perceptions

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 12 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Rachel Kranton

Détails

Past

Quadrupling historical GDP per capita estimates through machine learning

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 8 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Philipp Koch

Détails

Past

Crisis Politics in Europe: Public Support for Solidarity and Risk-Sharing Policies

  • Seminar

  • SBS recruitment seminar

  • Date 8 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 3 JJ LAFFONT

  • Speaker or organiser Iona-Elena Oana

Détails

Past

Social networks and inequality in small-scale subsistence societies

  • Seminar

  • SBS recruitment seminar

  • Date 7 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 3 JJ Laffont

  • Speaker or organiser Daniel Redhead

Détails

Past

Understanding Markets with Socially Responsible Consumers

  • Seminar

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences Seminar

  • Date 5 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 3 (Ground floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Botond Koszegi

Détails

Past

From ecology to hierarchy: Investigating the roots of sociopolitical organization in past human societies

  • Seminar

  • SBS recruitment seminar

  • Date 4 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 3 JJ Laffont

  • Speaker or organiser Cédric Perret

Détails

Past

Caught in the Crossfire World War I and the Failure of Women’s Suffrage in France

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 1 March 2024

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Charlotte Cavaillé

Détails

Past

Dynamics of social norms under collective risk

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 27 February 2024

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Giulia Andrighetto

Détails

Past

Were emotions more important than intellect in human origins?: An archaeological perspective on what makes us human

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 19 December 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first floor - tse building)

  • Speaker or organiser Penny Spikins

Détails

Past

From childhood to menopause: unraveling human life history evolution

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 8 December 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Piret Avila

Détails

Past

AI for social good: A behavioral science perspective on opportunities and challenges for ethical AI

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 5 December 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first floor - tse building)

  • Speaker or organiser Chiara Longoni

Détails

Past

How norms operate and how they change: a field study

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 1 December 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Minhua Yan

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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