Paul COTTON

Paul Cotton is a political scientist and affiliated researcher at the Health Chair and the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire d’Évaluation des Politiques Publiques (LIEPP) at Sciences Po. His research focuses on public policy evaluation and its contemporary transformations. In particular, he examines how expertise on public action is produced, the conditions under which it is mobilized, and its influence on policymaking processes and outcomes. Another strand of his work investigates programmatic and planning-oriented public policies. Alongside his academic research, he regularly contributes to both ex ante and ex post policy
evaluations as an expert consultant. He is involved in advancing methodological discussions on policy evaluation and promoting
dialogue between researchers and practitioners through the “Conversations on Evaluation” seminar series, organized in collaboration with the School of Public Affairs, where he also teaches.
 

Academic and Professional Service:

- Elected member of the executive board of Research Network 27 (Sociology of Expertise and Intellectuals: Knowledge and Power) of the French Sociological Association (AFS).
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the post-master’s programme Collective Public Action (Action Publique en Commun), Sciences Po Lyon.
- Member of the teaching team for the Master’s programme in Evaluation and Steering of Public Action, Sciences Po Lyon.
- Member of Grand Oral examination panels at Sciences Po Lyon and examiner for the common entrance examination of the Sciences Po network.
- Affiliated Researcher at the Public Transformations Chair, Sciences Po Lyon(2020–2025).
- Member of the Programme Committee of the French Evaluation Society (Société Française d’Évaluation, SFE); co-organizer of the - Public Policy Evaluation Dissertation Prize and subsequently member of the award selection committee.

Ongoing Research Projects

• Health Chair (Sciences Po): Qualitative study of the high-throughput genome sequencing laboratories (LBM-FMG) established under the French Genomic Medicine France 2025 Plan, conducted with Daniel Benamouzig as part of the SEQOGEN
  project.
• Participatory evaluation research: Assessment of the impacts of the City of Tours’
  participatory budgeting programme, conducted with Antonin Thyrard (University
  Sorbonne Paris Nord).

Completed Research Projects

• European Metropolis of Lille (2025–2026): Process-tracing study and evaluation of the appropriation and diffusion of design and behavioural science approaches in local public action since 2015.
• Territoires d’Innovations Publiques: Research programme on the public innovation ecosystem in the Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes region (Sciences Po Lyon – Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation, DITP).
• MSH Lyon Saint-Étienne: “Digital Tools and Public Action: New Relationships between Governors and Governed?” Research project funded by the Lyon Saint- Étienne House of Human Sciences (MSH), in collaboration with the TRIANGLE research centre (CNRS UMR 5206), DISP (EA 4570, INSA Lyon), COACTIS (EA 4161, Lumière Lyon 2 University), MAGELLAN (EA 3713, IAE Lyon 3 University), and CEPN (CNRS UMR 7234, University Sorbonne Paris Nord).

“The ‘Magnificent Losers’ of Public Sector Reform: Between Markets and Administrations, the Permanent Revolution of Policy Evaluation Repertoires in the State (1990–2024)”. Defended at Sciences Po Lyon on 7 January 2025.

Funding: CIFRE doctoral fellowship (2019–2022); full-time ATER position in Political
Science (section 04), Sciences Po Lyon (2022–2024).

• Cotton, Paul. “Le triomphe des caméléons : PME et multinationales du conseil dans la fabrique d’une technologie de réforme de l’État.” Revue Française d’Administration Publique, 2026.
• Bessis, Franck, and Paul Cotton. “L’évaluation par microsimulation et la conception de réformes socio-fiscales : genèse et effets d’une légitimité légale-algorithmique.” LIEPP Policy Brief, no. 88, March 2026.
• Cotton, Paul, and Antonin Thyrard. “L’évaluation selon Vincent Spenlehauer : pessimisme de l’intelligence et optimisme de la volonté.” Gouvernement et Action Publique, vol. 14, no. 4, 2025.
• Benamouzig, Daniel, and Paul Cotton. “Évaluation qualitative du Plan France Médecine Génomique 2025.” Research Report, Health Chair, September 2025.
• Bessis, Franck, and Paul Cotton. “Usages et effets de la microsimulation dans l’élaboration d’une réforme. Un nouvel éclairage sur la création du RSA.” Revue de la Régulation, no. 37, 2025.
• Bessis, Franck, and Paul Cotton. “Quantification néolibérale ou quantification des conflits de répartition ? La création du Revenu de solidarité au croisement de différentes formes d’expertise économique.” LIEPP Working Paper, no. 164, 2024.
• Christensen, Johan, and Paul Cotton. “‘De nouvelles expertises pénètrent en continu l’État, on ne peut plus juste en rester aux économistes’.” Revue Française de Socio- Économie, vol. 31, no. 2, 2023, pp. 215–226
• Bessis, Franck, and Paul Cotton. “Les politiques d’accès aux ressources numériques de l’administration au prisme de la microsimulation.” In Valérie Revest and Isabelle Liotard (eds.), Transformation digitale et politiques publiques : enjeux actuels.
  London: ISTE Editions, 2022, pp. 99–138. Co-author of the book’s conclusion with Valérie Revest and Isabelle Liotard.
• Cotton, Paul, and Clément Lacouette-Fougère. “L’évaluation participative des politiques d’éducation : enseignements de la littérature.” Paris: Cnesco, 2022.
• Bessis, Franck, and Paul Cotton. “La réforme, le chiffrage, son modèle et ses données. Les évolutions du monopole de l’expertise économique au prisme d’un instrument de microsimulation de la législation socio-fiscale.” Politix, vol. 134, no. 2, 2021, pp. 7–32 [online].
• Lamia, Benjankhar, and Paul Cotton. “La structuration d’un domaine évaluatif transversal : retours d’expériences sur les évaluations d’impact sur la santé.” Revue Française d’Administration Publique, vol. 177, no. 1, 2021, pp. 141–152.