Rebecca Simson is an economic historian specialising in Africa's postcolonial political economy. She is a convener of the Global Public Finance Lab.

Rebecca has taught and convened economic and social history courses at Oxford and LSE, and her research has considered topics on African fiscal development, public sector employment and educational expansion. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Oxford, where she is the Principal Investigator on the project Africa's Long Depression, which examines the causes of Sub-Saharan Africa's growth reversal between the late 1970s and 1990s. She has a background in development practice, and has previously worked on public finance research and programming for the World Bank, ODI Global and the International Growth Centre. Rebecca holds a PhD and MSc in Economic History from the LSE and a BA from Princeton University.