My research focuses on the challenges raised by behavioural economics for the foundations of normative economics, and the growing role of behavioural sciences in the design and justification of public policies (e.g. nudges and boosts). I work in different and complementary areas, such as decision theory, experimental economics, game theory on the one hand and history of economic thought, economic philosophy, and methodology on the other hand. I apply these tools to various policy issues, in particular health prevention (cf. TINCORIJ project), and education (collaboration with the Chaire EIEA at University Mohammed VI Polytechnic)
Main projects (as PI)
TINCORIJ (Immersive Technologies and Nudges for the Prevention of Risky Behaviours for the Youth), 2019-2023
Project in public health and experimental economics, consisting of the development of a smartphone game within which we 'hide' health prevention messages, which were codesigned with students. The pilot consisted of (i) a measure in the lab of the risk and time preferences of participants, followed by (ii) an intervention during which participants had to play with a smartphone game we developped for the project, and (iii) a debrief phase to collect the participants' acceptability judgement on this type of intervention (akin to social marketing)
4 teams: in experimental economics (GREDEG), health psychology (LAPCOS), Centre d'Innovation et d'Usage en Santé, Sens6 for the development of the game
Funding: 122K euros (100K IReSP; 22K Université Côte d'Azur, CSI 2019 & CSI 2023)
This work benefited from a financial support of the Mildeca through the Call for projects for Research in Public Health 2020 conducted by the Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique (IReSP), grant number IRESP-RSP2020-230985
PrefAIdvisor, 2025-2027
Project in experimental economics, consisting of eliciting the 'preferences' and 'beliefs' of chatbots when asking them to advise a human
Funding: 35K euros, IDEX Université Côte d'Azur
This work was supported by the French government through the France 2030 investment plan managed by the National Research Agency (ANR), as part of the Initiative of Excellence Universit´e Cˆote d’Azur under reference number ANR- 15-IDEX-01.
Publications
Lecouteux, Guilhem & Ivan Mitrouchev (forthcoming), Inferring welfare from inconsistent choices: how values matter. Economics & Philosophy
Published version (Gold OA): https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266267125000094
Lecouteux, Guilhem & Léonard Moulin (2024), Cycling in the aftermath of Covid-19: an empirical estimation of the social dynamics of bicycle adoption in Paris. Transportation Research: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 25, 101115.
Published version (Gold OA): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2024.101115
Lecouteux, Guilhem & Ivan Mitrouchev (2024), The `View from Manywhere': Normative economics with context-dependent preferences. Economics & Philosophy, 40(2), 374-396.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266267123000391
Accepted version: [document]
Priolo, Daniel, Isabelle Milhabet, Marilena Bertolino, Tom Juille, Dorian Jullien, Guilhem Lecouteux, Ismael Rafai & Pierre Thérouanne (2023). Would you like some coffee with your sugar? A natural field experiment on the efficiency and acceptability of setting zero sugar as a default in coffee-vending machines, Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 7(1-2), 25-41.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743603.2023.2214964
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2023). The Homer Economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies. Journal of Economic Methodology, 30(2), 176-187.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2023.2192222
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2022). Reconciling normative and behavioural economics: the problem that cannot be solved. In Badiei, S. & Grivaux, A (Eds), The Positive and Normative in Economic Thought, Routledge, pp.148-166.
Published version: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003247289-10
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2021). Behavioural welfare economics and consumer sovereignty. In Heilmann, C. & Reiss, J. (Eds), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Economics, Routledge, pp.58-66.
Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315739793-5
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2021). Welfare economics in large worlds: welfare and public policies in an uncertain environment. In Kincaid, H & Ross, D. (Eds), A Modern Guide to Philosophy of Economics, Elgar
Published version: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788974462.00015
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2018). Bayesian game theorists and non-Bayesian players. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 25(6): 1420-1454.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2018.1523207
Accepted version [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2018). What does 'we' want? Team reasoning, game theory, and unselfish behaviours, Revue d'économie politique, 128(3): 311-332.
Published version (gold OA): https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-politique-2018-3-page-311.htm
Introduction to a special issue on Team Reasoning
Larrouy, Lauren & Guilhem Lecouteux (2017). Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games, Journal of Economic Methodology, 24(3): 318-343.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2017.1335425
Accepted version: [document]
Infante, Gerardo, Guilhem Lecouteux & Robert Sugden (2016). Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics, Journal of Economic Methodology, 23(1): 1-25.
Published version (gold OA): https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2015.1070527
Infante, Gerardo, Guilhem Lecouteux & Robert Sugden (2016). On the Econ within: a reply to Daniel Hausman, Journal of Economic Methodology, 23(1): 33-37.
Published version: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2015.1070526
Accepted version: [document]
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2016). From Homo economicus to Homo psychologicus: the Paretian foundations of behavioural paternalism, Oeconomia, 6(2): 175-200.
Published version (diamond OA): https://doi.org/10.4000/oeconomia.2324
Lecouteux, Guilhem & Léonard Moulin (2015). To gain or not to lose? Tuition fees for loss averse students, Economics Bulletin, 35(2): 1005-1019.
Published version (diamond OA): Published version (diamond OA): http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2015/Volume35/EB-15-V35-I2-P103.pdf
Lecouteux, Guilhem (2015). In search of lost nudges, The Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 6(3): 397-408.
Published version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-015-0265-0
Accepted version: [document]
Coordination of special Issues
INEM23 Conference special issue, Journal of Economic Methodology, 2025, 32(3): https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjec20/32/3?nav=tocList
Introduction: Lecouteux, G., Lisciandra, C., & Thoma, J. (2025). Introduction to the INEM 2023 conference special issue. Journal of Economic Methodology, 32(3), 147–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2025.2549724
Team Reasoning, Revue d'économie politique, 2018, 128(3): https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-politique-2018-3.htm
Introcution: Lecouteux, Guilhem (2018). What does 'we' want? Team reasoning, game theory, and unselfish behaviours, Revue d'économie politique, 128(3): 311-332. https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-politique-2018-3-page-311.htm
Miscellaneous
(PhD thesis, and book reviews)
Unpublished papers (available on request)
Ouangraoua, Chris, Ismael Rafai & Guilhem Lecouteux. Internal and External Validity of Ambiguity Aversion Measures (R&R)
Lecouteux, Guilhem. The evolutionary stability of payoff-maximising behaviours and team reasoning
Larrouy, Lauren & Guilhem Lecouteux. Choosing in a large world: the role of focal points as a mindshaping device
Lecouteux, Guilhem, How we became rational: on the historical roots of the model of the inner rational agent