Quantitative Economist

IFC - International Finance Corporation
Washington, DC - United States
S: Competitive

Background / General description:

IFC, a member of World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We finance and provide advice for private sector ventures and projects in developing countries in partnership with other investors and, through advisory work, help governments create conditions that stimulate the flow of both domestic and foreign private savings and investment, with the goals of eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. Our particular focus is to promote economic development by encouraging the growth of productive enterprises and efficient capital markets in our member countries.

The Chief Economist's Office is one of the three departments that are part of the Business Communications and Knowledge Management group reporting to the Vice Presidents of IFC Client Services. The Office is comprised of four units: i) Thought Leadership unit, focusing on the role of IFC and the private sector in development, to facilitate the understanding of those roles to external audiences and to help formulate IFC strategies; ii) the Development Impact unit, in charge of generating an integrated understanding of IFC's development impact, including measurement and evaluation; iii) the Country Engagement unit, which works closely with IFC regional operations and the World Bank in setting development priorities and formulating growth strategies, through the new Systematic Country Diagnostics and Country Partnership Frameworks; and iv) the Research unit, in charge of generating a deep understanding of economies and market dynamics, to identify strategic implications for IFC business and clients. This position will be in the Thought Leadership unit, reporting to the head of the unit while also working closely with the Chief Economist and other senior members in the unit.

This position will be a four-year (renewable) term staff position based in Washington, D.C.

Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 4 year term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities:

Duties can be quite varied over time, but could include:

• Conduct original research, analysis and report writing for strategic thought leadership topics for IFC, helping to identify potential areas of growth for IFC. Research topics will evolve over time to meet corporate needs, but would include various topics related to the nature of the private sector and its role in development, and how better to link IFC activities to the World Bank Group goals of eliminating poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

• Leading the quantitative analysis of various projects being undertaken by the Thought Leadership unit, including providing expertise in methodologies, framing data gathering and analysis, and applying leading edge quantitative tools for analysis, including econometric relationships, statistical relationships, clustering and mapping.

• Leading junior staff in maintaining and growing large demographic, macroeconomic, and micro (firm and household) level databases to be used as sources of quantitative analysis.

• Leading the development of external research relationships and partnerships, including WBG, IMF, other MDBs, think tanks, consulting firms, and academia around the world. Seeking opportunities for joint research.

• Supporting as needed other activities in the Office of the Chief Economist, such as analytic support for special requests, and support to analytic methods in growth diagnostics and development impact modeling. Work as a bridge between the thought leadership program and the fundamental research being done by the Research Unit.

Selection Criteria:

Successful candidates should:

• Have a PhD in economics, with specialization in quantitative economics, econometrics and/or economics of developing countries
• Have 5+ years of professional experience in a research or analytical role
• Strong data analysis skills
• Strong writing and communication skills to convey technical ideas to a non-technical audience
• Strong understanding of the economics of development, the challenges developing countries face and the role of the private sector
• Experience with private sector investments and the role of markets and technology a plus
• Intellectual curiosity, creativity and outstanding problem-solving skills.
• Be able to prioritize and thrive under pressure and function effectively while managing multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Have experience interacting with senior management and/ or senior WBG staff, as well as building effective relationships with key stakeholders.
• Be able to foster teamwork and work successfully in multicultural teams and across organizational boundaries; collaborative positive attitude and proven capacity to build and manage effective relationships.
• Have strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to resolve differences or conflicts constructively.
• Have demonstrated written and verbal communications skills in English.

Job summary