Balaraju Battu is interested in the behavioural foundations of social behaviour. He conducts interdisciplinary research combining insights from political science, economics, and evolutionary game theory. He received his Ph.D. in Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences from Center of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, India in 2019. He has held visiting scholar positions at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai (IMSc) and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK).
By using evolutionary agent based models, Battu has studied conditions to establish cooperation in dyadic and public good games. In his work, Battu has examined the effects of error in conditional assessment, reputation, and imitation in establishing and sustaining cooperation.
During the Max Weber Fellowship, Battu will continue his research on human cooperation in public good provision by using experimental economics and agent based models. He will be examining how individual actions in the public good provision influence dyadic interaction among the agents and, in turn, influence collective action. The research exploits the human tendency to reciprocity, fairness, and retaliation in establishing human cooperation.
Battu is also interested in understanding the evolution of social institutions, particularly examining in what conditions a centralized monitoring or a mutual monitoring helps to establish and sustain public good provision.
Expertise for Teaching and Mentoring of Ph.D. Researchers
He has taught a master level course, mathematical methods for cognitive science, at the Center of Behavioral and Cognitive Science, University of Allahabad, India.