Social networks in neuroeconomics
This coming Saturday I will start a three-week visit to Duke University, where are located the labs of Michael Platt and Scott Huettel, two of the most prominent neuroeconomists. The purpose of this visit is to perform an “ethnography” of neuroeconomics, focused on how interdisciplinarity works in practice. Among other purposes, this study will provide me with qualitative insights which will complement one of the other projects I am currently running on the bibliometric study of neuroeconomics. A bibliometric study can be many things, in this case I am interested in how publications in neuroeconomics reflect its interdisciplinary nature. Online databa

Neuroeconomics: arriving at a consensual definition
Opinions about neuroeconomics vary enormously – to begin with, there is little agreement about what even *counts* as neuroeconomics. In my historical study of neuroeconomics,  I am confronted to this difficulty right from the first step. Before even analyzing it, what is neuroeconomics, the field that I am studying? There is yet no journal of neuroeconomics which would map and delineate the topic, and there is of course no single parent field from which this sub-field can be traced from.

But what exactly is computational neuroeconomics?
Computational neuroeconomics? Neuroeconomists develop their own jargon, as it is to be expected from a consolidating community of scientists with distinct interests. But denominations, categorical classifications, and basic concepts in neuroeco are very much still in the early stages of their definitions – they have not been “blackboxed” yet.

Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics – day 1
This is the second annual meeting of the SfN that I attend, and this time I am there to do interviews and publicize an online survey on interdisciplinarity which I designed for neuroeconomists (are you a neuroeconomist? Drop me an email at clevallois@rsm.nl, and I will send you the link to it). The program is remarkably different from the last year. Much less rat studies, an

Free-rider problem solved through neuroeconomic design
That is big, really big. The free-rider problem is simple. It describes those situations when a group of individuals would benefit from a common action, but each individual separately would prefer not to make any effort to make this action happen. Like: as a group, we would like to have an environmental policy to stop global warming, but when asked how much tax I personally would be ready to pay to implement this policy, I refuse to declare that I’d be willing to pay much. Even if the amount that I would pay would be more than compensated by the benefits of an environmental policy! Simply because hey, if the environmental policy i