Simon Varaine has been a lecturer in economics at Sciences Po Grenoble - UGA since September 1, 2024.
He is also a researcher at the Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL). His research focuses on the causes of political conflict and violence, the effects of public security policies, and the use of experimental methods to understand the formation of group identities and the dynamics of cooperation and confrontation. Before joining Sciences Po Grenoble, Simon Varaine was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre d'Économie de l'Environnement de Montpellier (CEE-M), where he took part in the ANR-funded project GROUP: In-group Favoritism in Intergroup Conflicts. Within the Pacte laboratory, he also took part in several international projects on the external control of police forces and the democratic governance of security institutions (POLDEM, JUSFORCE).
He received his doctorate in political science from Sciences Po Grenoble in 2020, with a thesis entitled La boussole de la violence. Prosperity, decline and the ideological orientation of radical movements. His work is published in journals such as Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Kyklos, Public Administration and Journal of Experimental Political Science.