About

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Government, University of Essex. I was awarded a PhD from University College London (UCL) in 2019.

My areas of expertise are international relations and comparative politics. My research agenda focuses on migrant and refugee movement, international development, and immigration policy. Methodologically, I specialize in field and survey experiments, as well as computational methods.

My research is published or forthcoming in journals such as PNAS, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science and International Studies Quarterly.

My research has been supported by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Leverhulme Trust, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Since August 2025, I am Primary Investigator on an IOM grant to evaluate livelihoods projects for returnees from Algeria, and local and migrant youth in Egypt.

Research

CV

Selected Publications

Simon, Miranda, Schwartz, Cassilde and Hudson, David (2024) Can Foreign Aid Reduce the Desire to Emigrate? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial. American Journal of Political Science.

Simon Miranda, Braithwaite, Alex, Frith, Michael and Ghosn, Faten (2024). How Governance Under The Grand Compromise Affects Refugee Preferences for Relocation: Evidence from Syrian Refugees in Lebanon. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Simon, Miranda, Schwartz, Cassilde and Hudson, David (2022). Covid-19 Insecurities and Migration Aspirations. International Interactions.

Ghosn, Faten, Chu, Tiffany, Simon, Miranda, Braithwaite, Alex, Frith, Michael and Jandali, Joanna (2021). The Journey Home: Violence, Anchoring, and Refugee Decisions to Return. American Political Science Review.

Schwartz, Cassilde, Simon, Miranda, Hudson, David, Johnson, Shane D. (2020). Law Breaking and Law Bending: How International Migrants Negotiate with State Borders. International Studies Quarterly.

Schwartz, Cassilde, Simon, Miranda, Hudson, David, Hudson, Jennifer (2020). A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes. British Journal of Political Science.

Simon, Miranda (2019). Path Dependency and Adaptation: The Effects of Policy on Migration Systems — Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.

Simon, Miranda, Schwartz, Cassilde, Hudson, David, and Johnson, Shane D. (2018). A data-driven computational model on the effects of immigration policies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Belur, Jyoti, Tompson, Lisa, Thornton, Amy and Simon, Miranda (2018). Inter-rater reliability in systematic review methodology: exploring variation in coder decision-making. Sociological Methods and Research.

Applied ethics publications

Gerver, Mollie, Simon, Miranda and Ghosn, Faten (2024). Refugee Resettlement and Preferences. Political Studies

Gerver, Mollie, Duell, Dominik, Lown, Patrick and Simon, Miranda (2024). The Immigration Discrimination Dilemma. Ethics and Global Politics.

Christensen, James and Simon, Miranda (2023). Using Aid to Control Migration. Political Studies

Media

“A data-driven computational model on the effects of immigration policies” was covered by the The Guardian, The Independent and La Presse.

“A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes” was covered by Forbes and Al Jazeera