Senior Infrastructure Economist

Background
The mission of the Sustainable Development Department in LCR (LCSSD) is to help the Bank's clients in the Latin America and Caribbean Region (LCR) grow in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner that reduces poverty. LCSSD is responsible for delivering a broad range of high-quality operational and analytical products related to the LCR region's needs in the fields of energy, water and sanitation, disaster risk management, urban development, transport, agriculture and rural development, environment and natural resource management, social sustainability as well as areas of focus that cut across these sectors, such as Climate Change, logistics, PPPs, and citizen security.

LCSSD is comprised of six sector clusters and is home to over 184 highly motivated staff. Its lending program consists of approximately 190 active projects and US17 billion in commitments. The department typically produces between 40 and 60 pieces of discreet analytical outputs per year.

The Economics Unit's mission is to provide strategic guidance to the department as it sets out its priorities and work program; assure the quality standards of all analytical work undertaken across the department; support the clusters in the economic aspects of operational work (including Impact Evaluation); manage and contribute to key pieces of analytical work that cut across sectors; ensure that the department's work is in tune with the broader development agenda of the Region and the Bank; and lead and support internal and external knowledge and learning efforts related to the Sustainable Development (SD) agenda. LCSSD's Economics Unit is also an integral part of the Bank-wide SD networks and has strong linkages with IFC, MIGA, and the World Bank Institute. It works closely with staff from the Office of the Chief Economist of the Latin America and Caribbean region as well as DEC, PREM and the Regional Knowledge & Learning and External Communications teams. The work of the unit also involves close collaboration with counterparts in client countries, and so requires good interpersonal skills, presentation skills, writing skills and proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese.

Duties
The position of the Senior Infrastructure Economist is located in the Economics Unit at LCSSD. The selected candidate will provide analytical leadership in key areas of concern in infrastructure and urban development; support the sectoral clusters in both their lending and analytical work; and assist the department in assuring the quality of its analytical work (reports, just-in-time notes, power points) of relevance to the sustainable development agenda of the Region. The position reports to the Lead Economist but is an integral part of the Economics Unit under the Director and serves the entire Department. The time of the staff member is allocated to specific tasks and assignments that may cover the range of analytical leadership, operational support, mentoring and supervision of unit analysts, and training or knowledge transfer. In addition, the senior economist will work directly and closely with the Chief Economist's Office on regional studies and will coordinate with colleagues involved with Knowledge & Learning to assure appropriate dissemination of analytical work. The position thus includes close collaboration with task teams, economists in the department clusters, the department management team, the Chief Economist for the region and other departments in LAC.
Responsibilities:
The principal responsibility of the Senior Infrastructure Economist will be to contribute to the department's empirical work on infrastructure and urban economics, particularly as those sectors strive to contribute to the Region's green and inclusive growth agenda. This will require:
1. Leading analytical work related to such topics as utility performance; impacts of investment on growth, employment or other development outcomes; and the relationship of infrastructure--including energy, water supply, sanitation and transport--and urban development to Climate Change and other environmental and social impacts.
2. Providing internal and external training on economics and econometric issues as per the particular strengths of the candidate and needs of the department.
3. Supporting task managers by helping in the design of empirical analysis required for economic sector work and operational economic analysis. In some cases the economist will take leadership responsibility for the task, joining teams, collecting the data and working with clients in designing the empirical analysis. In other cases, the infrastructure economist will simply provide technical support and quality enhancement services to teams; and
4. Supporting the quality control of the Department's analytical, technical assistance and advisory work through technical advice and reviews, participation in Quality Enhancement Reviews, and advisory support on methodology development.

Selection Criteria
1. Master's degree, or PhD, and a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in the infrastructure sectors, urban, and/or spatial economics.
2. Proven ability to conceptualize, design and implement major projects and to produce major/complex reports or studies.
3. Strong econometric and statistical skills. Proven capacity to undertake and lead research using large datasets for firms and households; and manage field research, including designing surveys. Knowledge of geographical information systems as applied to urban analysis and their integration with spatial econometrics is a plus;
4. Familiarity with the workings of the transport sector (physical infrastructure but also related services and logistics); water and sanitation (structure, regulation, and institutional framework); energy (market structure, regulation, and planning); urban land management and housing markets; and PPPs, infrastructure regulation and finance. Also experience looking at the macro impact of infrastructure in terms of growth, poverty, distributional effcts and expenditure investment needs;
5. Familiarity with Impact Evaluation and Monitoring and Evaluation techniques, including randomized experiments, matching, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity;
6. Creativity, ability to generate new ideas, and innovate in response to changing or new demands;
7. Ability to conduct independent policy discussions with senior regional staff, and representatives of both the government and non-government partners;
8. Strong knowledge of environmental and social development questions as they relate to infrastructure and urban development.
9. Ability to learn quickly, and proven capacity to work simultaneously and effectively on a variety of tasks, independently adjusting priorities and achieving agreed results;
10. Ability to work well in teams, especially inter-disciplinary teams; relate well to clients; and work across sectoral unit boundaries. Excellent inter-personal skills and a demonstrated record of both delivery and behaviors that yield results in a matrix structure; Ability to coach/mentor junior staff
11. Demonstrated professional leadership and ability to lead a team of professionals in the execution of major projects
12. Excellent communication skills, both in oral presentations and in writing. A track record of publications and experience with public speaking is considered important indication of this capacity; and
13. Familiarity with Latin America and ability to speak Spanish and/or Portuguese a strong plus.

The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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