Behaviour, Economics and Evolution specialisation

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At the end of the course students will be able to:

• Have an integrative understanding of the motivational basis of behavior
   
• Have an understanding of the economic concepts and principles useful to understand the evolution of interactions between organisms
   
• Transfer scientific knowledge and skills to applied questions in conservation and resource management

Biologists study behavioral interactions to better understand how organisms evolve and interact with their environments. Economics provides complementary knowledge by studying human behavioral interactions in order to understand how cooperation and societal objectives (e.g. pollution control) can be achieved efficiently by using scarce resources. The aim of the BEE specialization is to obtain an integrative understanding of interactions between individuals and their environment, using knowledge from both the evolutionary and economic sciences.

In addition to the disciplinary biology-oriented courses offered in the BEC Master's programme, BEE students will learn complementary concepts and principles by following courses from the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne. These involve both a number of cross disciplinary courses (such as microeconomics, game theory and environmental economics) as well as interdisciplinary courses that have been specifically put in place for the BEE specialisation (such as the BEE lectures series where students from the BEE program from both HEC and biology interact).

Acquiring these complementary skills from both biology and economics will allow the BEE students to get a a more integrated understanding of behavioral interactions, gain insight into how to manage change, and obtain a way of thinking about evolutionary and ecological problems in terms of scarce resource allocation problems.

In the BEE program, students will be able to acquire the following knowledge and skills:

• Learn basic concept of economics


• Make use of concepts from microecomics, game theory, and environmental economics to solve biological problems in ecology and evolution


• Training in quantitative methods, including modelling of evolutionary processes (genetic and cultural), how to sustainably harvest a resource, or to devise institutional rules to achieve conservation goals

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