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Till Grüne-Yanoff



Till Gruene-Yanoff

Till Grüne-Yanoff is professor of philosophy at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.

His research focuses on the philosophy of science, the philosophy of economics and on decision theory. In particular, he investigates the practice of modelling in science and engineering, develops formal models of preference consistency and preference change and discusses the evaluation of evidence in policy decision making. Click here for his Google Scholar page.

Till is editor of the journal Economics & Philosophy. He currently directs two externally funded research projects, one on Modal Modelling and another one investigating the mechanisms underlying Behavioral Policies for Sustainable Energy Consumption.

He lives with his wife and their two children in the beautiful Vasastan neighborhood of Stockholm.




NEWS (scroll down for more. . .)

08-07-2020 Keynote at the 8th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP), East Lansing, MI.

29-06-2020 Teaching at the Second Lake Como Summer School on Economic Behaviours: Models, Measurements, and Policies, Lake Como, Italy.

26-03-2020 Keynote at the Annual Meeting of the Danish National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science

11-02-2020 The MOOC Philosophy of Science for Engineers and Scientists starts its second round today!

Presenting the first paper from the Modal Modelling project today at Stockholm University. Draft here.

13-12-2019 Two day symposium at KTH Philosophical Tools for Real-World Problems. Organized by John Cantwell, Karin Björnberg and me.

28-11-2019 Seminar talk at King's College London on Boost vs. Nudge.

21-11-2019 The Swedish Environmental Agency FORMAS generously awarded me a three-year grant (SEK 2.99 Mio) for the project “Boosts vs. Nudges: A mechanism-based framework for assessing the effectiveness and normative acceptability of behavioral interventions for sustainable energy consumption.” The project will start in January 2020.

07-10-2019 Invited talk at CEAR workshop Prospect Theory as a Model of Risky Choice: Descriptive and Normative Assessments

05-09-2019 3rd Stockholm Philosophy of Economics Workshop. Organized by Erik Angner & me.

19-08-2019 Talking at INEM on Welfare Economics & Mechanisms.

01-07-2019 Teaching at the INEM Summer School on Economic Behaviours: Models, Measurements, and Policies at Lake Como, Italy.

09-04-2019 14-day research visit at Santa Fe Institute. Host: Mirta Galesic.

14-03-2019 Invited talk at Sozialwissenschaftliche Simulationen und die Soziologie der Simulation at HLRS

17-01-2019 Serving on Philippe Verreault-Julien's PhD committee in Rotterdam.

15-12-2018 The Massive Open Online Course Philosophy of Science for Engineers and Scientists starts today!

14-12-2018 Acting as opponent in William Hagman's PhD defence at Linköping University.

05-11-2018 The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) generously awarded me a four-year grant (SEK 5.5 Mio) for the project "Towards a Methodology of Modal Modeling for Science". The project, in collaboration with Sonia Roca-Royes (Stirling) and Tarja Knuuttila (Vienna) will start January 2019.

29-11-2018 Invited to Epistemic opacity in computer simulation and machine learning at the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). Speaking on "Epistemic Opacity and its Discontents"

17-10-2018 Invited to The Ethics of Nudging, Stirling. Speaking on "The importance of mechanistic evidence for the normative evaluation of behavioral public policy"

12-10-2018 Co-organised (with Erik Angner) the 2nd Stockholm Region Workshop on Economics & Philosophy at Stockholm University.

19-09-2018 CFP for Synthese special issue "What to Make of Highly Unrealistic Models?", co-edited with Emrah Aydinonat and Uskali Mäki. Deadline: January 31st, 2019. Please submit!

23-06-2018 Teaching at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality 2018 at Max Planck, Berlin. Speaking on "Boost vs. Nudge - How to Categorise & Evaluate Behavioural Policies"

06-03-2018 Invited to a Panel on the "Ethics of Nudging" (with Dan Hausman and Julian Reiss) at the Workshop "New Challenges, New Objectives and New Tools for Public Policy" of the Reinhard Selten Institute, Köln.

28-11-2017 Invited to "Rationale Entscheidung unter Unsicherheit" at the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg. Speaking on "Modell-Auswahl für Politik- und Verwaltungsentscheidungen am Beispiel der Pocken-Epidemiologie"

25-10-2017 Invited to give Ringvorlesung "Boosting oder Nudging? Über zwei Arten, Menschen beim Entscheiden zu helfen und ihr Verhalten zu beeinflussen" at Universität Hamburg.

18-10-2017 Invited seminar talk "Behavioural Science in Public Policy" at the Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin. Lovely plenary at the Royal Irish Academy

17-10-2017 Invited to CEAR Conference on Prospect Theory as a Model of Risk Choice: Descriptive and Normative Assessments, Cork. Speaking on "CPT, RDU, EUT - How to Justify their Normative Validity"

16-05-2017 Invited seminar talk "Behavioural Science in Public Policy" at Université catholique de Louvain.

15-05-2017 Invited seminar talk "Boost vs. Nudge - A Conceptual Distinction Relevant for Behavioural Policy-Making" at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Discussant: Joel Anderson from Utrecht.

11-04-2017 Invited seminar talk "Boost vs. Nudge - A Conceptual Distinction Relevant for Behavioural Policy-Making" at Behavioural Science Centre, Stirling University.

18-03-2017 Science News discusses my article on behavioural policy & mechanisms, and also presents the Boost concept. Link here.

16-03-2017 Keynote "Boost vs. Nudge - A Conceptual Distinction Relevant for Behavioural Policy-Making" at What People Know and Think: The Role of Attitudes and Information in the Process of Political Decision-Making and Policy Use, Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences. Here's a shot of me in action.

08-03-2017 The 2017 OECD report Behavioural Insights and Public Policy: Lessons from Around the World cites Hertwig's and my 2016 paper and discusses our boost concept as an alternative type of behavioural policy (p. 51)

07-03-2017 Ralph Hertwig's and my paper "Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Good Decisions" has now been accepted for publication in Perspectives on Psychological Science.

10-03-2017 Co-organised (with Erik Angner and Sven Ove Hansson) the Stockholm Region Workshop on Economics & Philosophy at KTH.

01-01-2017 Since January 2017 I am editor of Economics & Philosophy.

28-11-2016 KTH funds the transition of my Theory and Methodology of Science (TaMoS) course into a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), to appear in 2018 at edX

20-10-2016 Invited to Conference on Evidence-based Policy, Future Institute, Stockholm. Speaking on "The Normative Relevance of Mechanistic Evidence. The Case of Default-Setting Policies"

23-09-2016 Invited to 51. Deutscher Historikertag, Hamburg. Speaking on "Boost vs. Nudge. Zur Historisierung zweier Typen der Verhaltensintervention". [Report (in German)]

24-08-2016 International Conference on Thinking, Brown, Providence, RI. Speaking on "Nudge or Boost? Ecologically Rational Choice of Behavioural Interventions"

14-08-2016 Deutschlandfunk broadcasts an interview with me in a 30 min radio feature on scientific simulations. [Text] [Audio] (In German)

08-08-2016 Nordplus awarded us the Higher Education 2016 Mobility Grant Stockholm-Tallinn-Helsinki 2016-2017

02-07-2016 Teaching at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality 2016 at Max Planck, Berlin. Speaking on "Nudging and Boosting. Two Distinct Pathways to Behavior Change"

04-04-2016 Keynote Speaker at the Network for Integrated Behavioural Science (NIBS) 2016 Conference in Norwich.

26-05-2016 Invited to the Agent Cultures Workshop at the Institute for Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation in Lüneburg.

19-11-2015 At INEM 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa, presenting my paper "Why Boosts are not Nudges". Karl Engvers Stiftelse kindly funds my trip there.

17-11-2015 Invited to the workshop Bridging the Gap between Economists and Philosophers, in Cape Town, South Africa, organised by the Institute for New Economic Thinking,. Speaking on "Idealization in Economic Models - What They are and How to Justify Them"

12-11-2015 My paper "Models of Temporal Discounting 1937-2000: An Interdisciplinary Exchange Between Economics and Psychology" has now been published in Science in Context

08-11-2015 My paper "Interdisciplinary Success Without Integration" has been accepted for publication in European Journal for Philosophy of Science

12-10-2015 Invited to the workshop Science and Art of Simulation (SAS) at the Bundeshöchstleistungszentrum in Stuttgart (HLRS). Speaking on "Systematic Decision-Making with Computer Simulations"

06-10-2015 My collaboration with TINT on "Models Into and Out of Economics" has been renewed until the end of 2017.

26-06-2015 Invited to the Organisation Committee of SPSP for a tenure of 4 years.

23-06-2015 Invited to speak at the SPSP Pre-Conference Workshop at Aarhus University. Speaking on "Teaching Philosophy of Science by Example"

26-06-2015 Invited to the Program Committee of the PSA Biennial Meeting 2016.

10-06-2015 Invited to speak at the Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality 2015 at Max Planck, Berlin. Speaking on "Nudging vs. Boosting - Comparing Two Types of Behavioural Policies"

24-05-2015 My paper "Why behavioral policy needs mechanistic evidence" has now been accepted for publication in Economics & Philosophy

09-05-2015 Invited to speak at the Workshop Workshop: Just Playing? Toy Models in the Sciences at LMU Munich. Speaking on "Toy Models as Possibility-Identifying Devices"

29-05-2015 Serving on the evaluation committee of Guilhem Lecouteux' Ph.D. defence at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris.

28-04-2015 Ralph Hertwig's and my paper paper "Nudge Versus Boost: How Coherent are Policy and Theory?" is now published online by Minds & Machines

04-04-2015 My paper "Models of Temporal Discounting 1937-2000: An Interdisciplinary Exchange Between Economics and Psychology" has now been accepted for publication in Science in Context

14-03-2015 Serving on the evaluation committee of Henrik Thoren's Ph.D. defence in Lund.

08-11-2014 At PSA 2014 in Chicago, presenting my paper "Why behavioral policy needs mechanistic evidence". Karl Engvers Stiftelse kindly funds my trip there.

23-07-2014 Invited to speak at the Summer School in Economics and Philosophy in San Sebastian, Spain. Speaking on "Assisting Limited Beings - Categorising and Comparing Different Types of Behavioural Policies"

13-06-2014 Invited to speak at the Bounded Rationality Summer School 2014 at Max Planck, Berlin. Speaking on "Assisting Limited Beings - Categorising and Comparing Different Types of Behavioural Policies"

03-06-2014 The Wissenschaftskollegium Berlin funds the Symposium "Nudge v. Educate", organised by Konstantinos Katsikopoulos (MPI für Bildungsforschung), Niklas Keller (Charite Berlin) and me with EUR 20.000.

21-01-2014 My paper "Teaching Philosophy of Science to Scientists: Why, What and How" is now in print in European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Volume 4, Issue 1, 115-134

09-01-2014 My paper "Appraising Non-Representational Models" is now in print in Philosophy of Science ,Vol. 80, No. 5, 850-861.

05-01-2014 Back in Stockholm from my Sabbatical!

21-11-2013 My paper "Teaching Philosophy of Science to Scientists: Why, What and How", has been accepted for publication in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science

12-12-2013 Invited to the workshop Computer Simulations, Grenoble, talking on "Intuition in Scientific Modelling: Its Justifications and Their Methodological Implications"

26-10-2013 Invited to the workshop Conference on Liberty in the Protective State, Budapest, talking on "The Democratic Limitations of Nudge Policies"

17-10-2013 Talking on "Welfare Assessment of Default-Setting Policies" at Behavioural Economics: Science, Philosophy, and Policy-Making, Trento

23-09-2013 My reply Genuineness resolved: a reply to Reiss' purported paradox, is now in print at Journal of Economic Methodology 20(3)

12-09-2013 Invited to the workshop ÜberÖkonomieDenken - Ökonomie überdenken, Berlin, talking on "Some Justifications of MicroModels - and their Limits"

12-09-2013 My paper Preference Change and Conservatism is now in print at Synthese 190(14), pp. 2623-2641

27-08-2013 Talking on "Model exchanges and their interdisciplinary success" at the pre-EPSA symposium Towards Philosophies of Interdisciplinarity, Helsinki

23-07-2013 Our special issue of Perspectives on Science Modeling Practices in the Social and Human Sciences. An Interdisciplinary Exchange (edited with Mary Morgan), is now in print

01-07-2013 I will spend my sabbatical (until the end of 2013) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. See you there!

14-03-2013 Invited to the workshop Understanding through modeling, Bochum, talking on "Learning Possibilities from Credible Models"

14-03-2013 Talking on "Teaching Philosophy of Science to Scientists: Why, What and How" at GWP 2013, Hannover

05-12-2012 Talking on "Exclusion Criteria for Adaptive Preferences" at LSE's Choice Group

16-11-2012 Talking on "Appraising Non-Representational Models" at PSA 2012 in San Diego

09-11-2012 Karl Engvers stiftelse kindly offered to pay my trip to PSA. Thanks!

24-10-2012 Invited to the workshop Topics in Economics and Philosophy in Uppsala, talking on "Preference Consolidation and Endogenous Entrenchment"

05-10-2012 Invited to the workshop What is Interdisciplinary Success? in Lund, talking on "Investigating model exchanges for their interdisciplinary success"

31-09-2012 Talking on "Preference Consolidation and Endogenous Entrenchment" at Frontiers of Rationality and Decision in Groningen

12-06-2012 My paper "Appraising Non-Representational Models" has been accepted in Philosophy of Science

20-06-2012 Invited to the workshop Collective Decisions in Hamburg, talking on "Appraising Non-Representational Models"

15-06-2012 Talking on "Appraising Non-Representational Models" at Models & Simulations 5 in Helsinki

12-05-2012 Talking on "Rationality Assumptions as an Answer to Negative Performativity" at Naturalism and Normativity in the Social Sciences in Hradec Kralove,CZ

19-04-2012 Talking on "Evolutionary Game Theory, Learning Dynamics and Mechanisms" at GIRL'12@LUND

01-04-2012 My article "Old Wine In New Casks: Libertarian Paternalism Still Violates Liberal Principles" is now in print in Social Choice and Welfare Volume 38, Issue 4, pp 635-645.

01-01-2012 Since January 2012 I am associate editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology.

28-10-2011 The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) generously awarded me a three-year grant (SEK 1 Mio) for the project "Assisted Decision Making - A Philosophical Investigation". The project will start January 2012.




Till Gruene-Yanoff Avdelningen för Filosofi   ●   KTH   ●   Teknikringen 76   ●   100 44 Stockholm   ●   Sweden   ●   Tel +46 8 790 9454