CV

University of Geneva
Department of Political Science and IR
1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland

Email: dietrich.simone[at]gmail.com
Web: simone-dietrich.com; Google Scholar

University of Geneva, since September 2017

Associate Professor

Department of Political Science and International Relations

Princeton University, 2023–2024

Visiting Research Scholar, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance

University of Essex, 2015-2017

Senior Lecturer, Department of Government 

Director, ESSEXLab 

University of Missouri, 2012-2015

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science

Affiliate Faculty Member, Truman School in Public Affairs

Princeton University, 2011-2012

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance

Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Ph.D., Political Science, 2011

Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan USA

M.A., Political Science, May 2002.

University of Munich, Munich, Germany

B.A. equivalent, Political Science, May 2000.

2021. States, Markets, and Foreign Aid. Cambridge University Press

Co-Winner of APSA Collaboration Section Best Book Award

Book reviews: Brookings (by George Ingram), DevPolicy (by Terence Wood), From Poverty to Power (by Duncan Green), Review of International Organizations (by Gabriella Montinola), Foreign Affairs (by Nic Van de Walle), Political Science Quarterly (by Tana Johnson), and Governance (by Stephen Nelson).

Podcast: In Pursuit of Development (with Dan Banik)

 

"The Institutional Politics of Development Finance: ODA`s Role in Shaping Subnational DFI Investments." With Nicolas Bau, Jing Qian, and Duy Trinh. Review of International Organizations.

"Citizen Perceptions of the EU's Global Gateway and China's Belt and Road Initiative: Evidence from South Africa and Nigeria." With Tetsekela Anyiam-Osigwe and Alexandra Zeitz. Journal of European Integration 48(6): 1077-1098. 2026.

"Guaranteeing the Global Gateway: National Development Finance Institutions and the Transformation of EU Development Finance." With Nicolas Bau. Journal of European Integration. 48(6): 1033-1055. 2026

"Peer-to-Peer Accountability and Knowledge Production in OECD DAC.With Alice Iannantuoni and Bernhard Reinsberg. Review of International Organizations. 

"Populism and the Politics of Aid Classification: Evidence from the OECD DAC." With Nicolas Bau, Katharina Fleiner, and Alice Iannantuoni. International Studies Quarterly. 

"Which Countries Does the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Talk about When It Talks about International Development?" With Alice Iannantuoni and Matthew Winters. World Development. 2025

"Examining New Donors in the OECD DAC Development Assistance Committee." With Nicolas Bau, Katharina Fleiner, and Alice Iannantuoni. Journal of International Development. 2025

"The Politics of Gender Mainstreaming in Foreign Aid." With Daniela Donno, Katharina Fleiner, and Alice Iannantuoni. International Studies Quarterly. 2025. 

"Who Reviews Whom, Where, and Why? Evidence from the Peer Review Process of the OECD Development Assistance Committee." With Alice Iannantuoni and Bernhard Reinsberg. International Studies Quarterly 69(1). 2025

"Building Active Youth in Post-Soviet Countries through Civic Education Programs: Some Evidence from Poland." East European Politics 39(2): 321-344. With Paulina Pospieszna and Patrick Lown. 2023.

"Donor Bureaucratic Organization and the Pursuit of Performance-based Aid through Trust Funds." European Journal of International Relations and Development 25: 709–738. With Bernhard Reinsberg and Martin Steinwand. 2022.

"Foreign Aid and Judicial Autonomy." Review of International Organizations 17: 691–715. With Margaret Ariotti and Joseph Wright. 2022.

"How to Make Elite Experiments Work in International Relations." European Journal of International Relations. With Heidi Hardt and Haley Swedlund. 2021.

• Monkey Cage blog post;

"From Text to Political Positions on Foreign Aid: Analysis of Aid Mentions in Party Manifestos from 1960 to 2015." International Studies Quarterly. With Helen Milner and Jonathan Slapin. 2020

"Overseas Credit Claiming and Support for Foreign Aid." Journal of Experimental Political Science 6: 159-179. With Susan Hyde and Matthew Winters. 2019.

"Aiding the Virtuous Circle? International Development Assistance and the Legitimacy of Government Actors in Bangladesh." Journal of International State Building 12(4) 468-483. With Minhaj Mahmud and Matthew Winters. 2018.

"Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy, and Government Legitimacy: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh." Journal of Politics 80(1): 133-48. With Minhaj Mahmud and Matthew Winters. 2018.

• Washington Post blog post; AidData blog post

"Perceptions of Foreign Aid Quality in Bangladesh." Research and Politics 4(4): 1-6. With Minhaj Mahmud and Matthew Winters. 2017.

"INGO Human Rights Shaming and Foreign Aid Delivery." Review of International Organizations 12: 95-120. With Amanda Murdie. 2017. 

"Donor Political Economies and the Pursuit of Aid Effectiveness." International Organization 70 (1): 65-102. 2016.

”State or Regime? The Impact of Political Institutions on Human Development." European Journal of Development Research 28(2): 252-269. With Michael Bernhard. 2016.

"Foreign Aid and Government Legitimacy." Journal of Experimental Political Science 2(2): 164-171. With Matthew Winters. 2016.

• AidData blog post

"Foreign Aid Allocation Tactics and Democratic Change in Africa." Journal of Politics 77 (1) : 216-234. With Joseph Wright. 2015

• AidData blog post

"Bypass or Engage? Explaining Donor Delivery Tactics in Aid Allocation." International Studies Quarterly 57(4): 698-712. 2013.

"The Politics of Health Aid: Why Corrupt Governments Have Incentives to Implement Aid Effectively." World Development 39(1): 55-63. 2011.

"Foreign Aid and Quality of Government." in Oxford Handbook of Quality of Government. New York: Oxford University Press. 2020. With Matthew Winters.

"EU Democracy Promotion, Conditionality, and Judicial Autonomy." In Alina Mungiu-Pippidi and Jana Warkotsch, eds. Beyond the Panama Papers. The Performance of EU Good Governance Promotion. Columbia University Press. 2017.

"Foreign Aid and Democratic Consolidation in Africa." In Nicolas van de Walle and Danielle Resnik, eds. Foreign Aid and Democratic Consolidation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford University Press. 2013. With Joseph Wright.

"Beyond Paternalism: How Leadership Diversity Shapes Foreign Aid Perceptions in South Africa." With Soohyun Cho and Rikio Inouye. Revise and resubmit.

"Land disputes and gender equality in post-conflict environments: Household-level evidence from Northern Uganda." With Florian Kern, Pamella Achan Lakidi, Freda Laura Orochi, Cécile Richetta, and Matthew Winters. Revise and resubmit. 

"The Rainbow Ripple Effect: LGBT Advocacy and Foreign Aid." With Gino Pauselli. 

"Preferred Partners? How Co-fianncing with the African Development Bank Shapes Public Perceptions of Foreign Assistance." With Tetsekela Anyiam-Osigwe and Alexandra Zeitz. 

"The Limits of Foreign Faces: Descriptive Representation and Political Empowerment in South Africa." With Soohyun Cho and Rikio Inouye.

"What Geopolitical Returns does ODA Bring? With Nicolas Bau. Kiel Working Paper 2305. 

"The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Sponsor Firm Politics in Frontier Investment." With Jihye Park and Nicolas Bau.

2024 Swiss National Science Foundation, Project Grant (CHF 740,000)

2023/2024 Visiting Research Scholar Fellowship at Princeton University

2022 Co-Winner of APSA International Collaboration Section Book Award

2019 Swiss National Science Foundation, Project Grant (CHF 725,000)

2016 Executive Dean Fund and Impact Acceleration Account (GBP 17,000) University of Essex

2014 International Studies Association ($21,000) Venture Research Grant

2014 AidData Research Consortium ($25,000), Research Funding, College of William and Mary

2014 Research Board Grant ($50,000), Field Experiment in Bangladesh, University of Missouri

2014 Research Grant ($5,000), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Missouri

2014 Research Grant ($5,000), Political Science Department, University of Missouri

2014 Summer Research Fellowship ($5,000), Forum on Constitutional Democracy, University of Missouri

2014 International Travel Grant ($1,500), Research Council, University of Missouri

2013 Summer Research Fellowship ($7,000), Research Council, University of Missouri.

2012 Research Grant ($7,500), Research Council, University of Missouri.

2010 Graduate Summer Research Award ($2,500) Penn State, Political Science Department.

2009-10 Predoctoral Fellowship, Quantitative Social Sciences Initiative. Penn State.

2009 Clogg Scholarship Award to attend the 2009 ICPSR Summer Program, University of Michigan.

2009 Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Political Science Department, Penn State

2009 Dissertation Support Award ($3,500) to conduct interviews with U.S, British, and German donor agency representatives, College of Liberal Arts, Penn State

2008 Summer Graduate Research Award ($2,500), Political Science Department, Penn State

2007 Pre-doctoral Research Grant ($2,000) for dissertation field research in Washington, D.C., Political Science Department, Penn State

2004 Manfred-Woerner-Seminar for Young Leaders, The German Marshall Fund, Berlin.

2002-2003 Carlo Schmid Fellowship ($10,000), German Academic Exchange Service, Germany.

2002 Outstanding Graduate Research Award, Political Science Department, Wayne State University.

2001 Graduate Student Symposium on Global Security, Women in International Security, Washington, D.C.

Fudan University, Shanghai, Seminar Series, June 2, 2026.  

New York University, Shanghai, Workshop on Development Finance and Economic Governance, May 30, 2026.

University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, May 25, 2026. 

University of Hong Kong, Infrastructures in International Relations, May 22-23. 2026.

Wyss Academy, University of Bern, Seminar Series, April 1, 2026. 

Princeton University, European Studies Seminar Series, May 7, 2025

Technical University Munich, Global Gateway II Workshop, February 14-15, 2025

University of Texas at Austin, IR Research Seminar, April 24, 2024

University of Montréal/McGill/Concordia, IR Research Seminar, March 26, 2024

Princeton University, Global Gateway I Workshop, March 13-14, 2024

University of Wisconsin at Madison, International Relations Seminar, Feburary 14, 2024

Johns-Hopkins University, Political Economy Research Seminar, November 28, 2023

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, IR Colloquium, November 27, 2023

Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies, Public Lecture, Cologne, July 5, 2023

University of Göttingen, Digital Development Dialogue (3D), October 27, 2022

Society for International Development, Washington Chapter, June 14, 2022.

University of Ottawa, Center for International Policy Studies, Research Seminar, May 25, 2022

King`s College London, Research Seminar, April 27, 2022

European University Institute, Research Seminar, March 23, 2022.

Berlin Social Research Center (WZB), Talk Series, March 1, 2022.

Graduate Institute for International Studies, Global Governance Center, February 28, 2022.

University of Stockholm, Political Science Research Seminar, February 16, 2022.

Expert Group of Aid Studies, Research Seminar, Stockholm, February 15, 2022.

fhi360, Evidence that Matters Seminar Series, November 4, 2021.

University of Zurich/ETH, CIS Seminar, October 28, 2021

University of Birmingham, IDD Guest Seminar Series, October 13, 2021

Yale University, International Relations Seminar, May 5, 2021

University of Konstanz, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, April 23, 2021

University of St Gallen, Workshop "Gauging Global Governance, January 27-28, 2020

University of Bern, Global Economic Governance Seminar Series, November 29, 2019

New York University at Florence, Winter Experimental Social Sciences Institute, September 27-28, 2019

Princeton University, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, September 20, 2019

New York University at Abu Dhabi, Experimental Social Sciences Institute, January 21-23, 2019

University of St. Gallen, Political Science Research Seminar, September 25, 2018

Paris School of Economics, Seminar Series, May 29 2018

OECD IdeaFactory on International Cooperation, May 28 2018

University of Heidelberg, Economics and Politics Speaker Series, December 19, 2017

Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies, IR/Political Science Seminar Series, December 4, 2017

London School of Economics, Workshop on Civil Society, Accountability and Development, December 2, 2017

University of Gothenburg, Workshop: Public Management and Institutional Quality, June 7-8, 2017

University of Hamburg, Society for International Development, May 9, 2017

Free University of Berlin, Workshop II on Governance and Legitimacy in Areas of Limited Statehood, April 28-29, 2017

Stanford University, Department of Political Science, April 21, 2017

University of California at Davis, Department of Political Science, April 19, 2017

University of California at Berkely, International Relations Seminar, April 17, 2017

European University Institute, Experimental Working Group, March 22, 2017

University of Antwerp, Workshop on Domestic Determinants of Foreign Aid, October 24-25, 2016

University of Mannheim, MZES Speaker Series, October 17, 2016

Department for International Development (DFID), July 22, 2016

UNWider, Economics Seminar Series, Helsinki, July 16, 2016

Free University of Berlin, Workshop I on Governance and Legitimacy in Areas of Limited Statehood, June 10-11, 2016 

Barcelona-Gothenburg Workshop on Experimental Political Science, Barcelona, May 4-5, 2016

Hertie School of Governance, Seminar Series, Department of Organization, Management, and Leadership, April 14, 2016 

Oxford University, Nuffield College, Seminar Series Department of Politics and International Relations, February 2, 2016 

London School of Economics, Seminar Series, International Relations Department, December 3, 2015 

Princeton University, Conference on Political Economy of Goverment Revenue, October 2-3, 2015 

German Institute for Development Evaluation, Bonn, June 24, 2015

University of Gothenburg, Seminar Series, Quality of  Government Institute, Gothenburg, May 29, 2015 

Deaton Institute for University Leadership in International Development, University of Missouri, April 13, 2015

Georgetown University, International Studies Association Workshop, April 11, 2015 

University of Essex, Department of Government, October 30, 2014

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Seminar Series Hamburg, July 15 2014

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, June 26, 2014

Princeton University, Conference on Field Experiments in International Relations, May 2-3, 2014 

William and Mary University, AidData Research Consortium, January 2014

German Development Institute, Bonn, July 25, 2013

University of Munich, Center for Economic Studies, July 17, 2013

Princeton University, Conference on Foreign Aid, April 26-27, 2013

University of Florida, Political Science Department Speaker Series, March 22, 2013

Brigham Young University, Conference on Field Experiments in International Relations, September 21-22, 2012

Pennsylvania State University, Women in Methodology Conference, May 18-19 2012

Harvard University, Kennedy School, 18th Annual International Development Conference, April 14, 2012

Princeton University, International Relations Colloquium, October 2011

UN-Wider, Workshop on Aid to Africa, Helsinki, August 15, 2011

Juan March Institute, Madrid, January 20, 2011

Member of Scientific Advisory Board, German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), since 2018

Member of EGAP, since 2018

Member of Research Prize Committee, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), since 2018-2022

AidData Research Consortium Member, College of William and Mary, since 2013

Visiting Researcher (summers): University of Gothenburg, Quality of Governance Institute 2015; University of Munich, Ifo Institute/Department of Economics 2013,2014; German Development Institute (DIE) 2009,2013.

@ University of Geneva:

Introduction to International Relations (BA, fall 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Introduction aux Relations Internationales (BA, spring 2019, 2020, 2021)

MA Seminars on Domestic Politics and International Relations (spring 2018, 2019, 2020), Political Economy of Foreign Aid (fall 2018, 2019, 2020), Management in International Organizations (fall 2019. 2021)

@ University of Essex:

Seminar on Domestic Politics and International Relations, GV312 (Undergraduate); Seminar on Politics of International Devellopment, GV315 (Undergraduate)

Designing, Conducting, and Analyzing Social Science Experiments (collaboration w/ Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis)

@ University of Missouri, Columbia:

Seminar on International Organizations, PS 9490 (Graduate), Seminar in International Political Economy, PS 9430 (Graduate), Introduction to International Relations, PS 9400 (Graduate), Economic Theories of International Relations, PS 4420 (Undergraduate), Introduction to International Relations, PS  (Undergraduate)

Current Book Review Editor @ Review of International Organizations; Editorial Board Member @ Perspectives of Politics

Former Editorial Board Member @ American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics

Committee Member, Virtual IPES, 2018-2021. Organized and hosted 6 virtual paper panels.

Local host of EGAP Annual Conference at the University of Geneva, October 2019.

Organizer of Conference ``Public Opinion and Foreign Aid," at University of Geneva, February 2019.

Organizer of Conference ``Public Opinion and Foreign Aid," at University of Essex, April 2016. 

Organizer of ISA Workshop ``Foreign Aid and Government Legitimacy," hosted by Georgetown University in April 2015. Co-sponsored by Princeton University and AidData.

Organizer of Conference, Research Frontiers in in Foreign Aid, Princeton University, April 2013, with Helen Milner.

Section Chair, Comparative Political Economy, 2013 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association

Panel Organizer (1) "New Research on Bilateral and Multilateral Aid." APSA Washington D.C. 2014; (2) "New Directions in Foreign Aid Research." APSA, Chicago 2013; (3) "Foreign Aid Allocation and Effectiveness: Examining Causal Mechanisms." APSA 2010

Reviewer for American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, Political Analysis, International Studies Quarterly, World Development, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Review of International Organizations, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Institutional Economics, International Studies Review, Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of European Integration, Oxford Development Studies, Governance, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Asian and Africa Studies, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Routledge Publishing. 

Work for IOs and NGOs
Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, Sarajevo
Consultant
August, 2003 - March, 2004

OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina, Sarajevo
Junior Professional Consultant
September, 2002 - July, 2003
Coordinated the "Successor Generation Initiative" (SGI), the OSCE's flagship leadership training program for 45 accomplished youth leaders of political parties and NGOs.

German Foreign Office, Berlin
Certified practitioner
Summer 2003
Training of Civilian Personnel for Deployment in International Peace Operations.

Election Observation missions
OSCE Mission to Kyrgyzstan
July 2005
Short-Term International Elections Observer for the Presidential elections, deployed in Bishkek.

OSCE Mission to Georgia
January 2004
Short-Term International Elections Observer for the Presidential elections, deployed in Kharagauli
region.

ODHIR Mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina
October 2002
Short-Term International Elections Observer for the General elections, deployed in Sarajevo.

Work for Government/Research Institutions
Erfurt School of Public Policy, German Ministry of Education
Consultant
January - April 2006

Center for Applied Policy Research, Munich Germany
Research Fellow
April 2004 - August 2005