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

Land Rental Markets: Experimental Evidence from Kenya

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 30 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Jack Willis

Détails

Past

Hominin foraging niche and the evolution of human cumulative culture

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 28 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first floor - tse building)

  • Speaker or organiser Andrea Bamberg Migliano

Détails

Past

The Gains from Foreign Multinationals in an Economy with Distortions

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 23 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Isabela Manelici

Détails

Past

Learning from Adam Smith in 2023

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 23 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 3

  • Speaker or organiser Samuel Fleischacker

Détails

Past

Investigating Exotic Animal Dealers in Japan

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 10 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First Floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Cécile Sarabian

Détails

Past

Subways or Minibuses? Privatized Provision of Public Transit

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 9 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Lucas Conwell

Détails

Past

Inferences about Interdependence Shape Cooperation

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 7 November 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first fllor - tse building)

  • Speaker or organiser Daniel Balliet

Détails

Past

Fundraising Events and Non-Ideological Donation Motivations

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 27 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE building)

  • Speaker or organiser Sebastian Thieme

Détails

Past

Algorithm-Mediated Social Learning and the Cultural Evolution of Morality

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 24 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Molly Crockett

Détails

Past

Policy for dummies (and other social scientist)

  • Seminar

  • IAST Lunch Seminar

  • Date 20 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first floor - TSE Building)

  • Speaker or organiser Ilaria Pretelli

Détails

Past

Learning to see the world’s opportunities: The impact of mental imagery on entrepreneurial action

  • Seminar

  • IAST General Seminar

  • Date 17 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4 (first Floor - tse BUILDING)

  • Speaker or organiser Alexia Delfino

Détails

Past

Resource windfalls, public expenditure and labour markets: Evidence from municipalities in Peru

  • Seminar

  • Behavior, Institutions, and Development Seminar

  • Date 12 October 2023

  • Place Auditorium 4

  • Speaker or organiser Antonella Bancarali

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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