E T Consultant

Contract

This is a World Bank Group grade: EC2 contract. More about World Bank Group grade: EC2 contracts.

E T Consultant

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. Visit www.worldbank.org.

BACKGROUND

The World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice (FCI) combines expertise in the financial sector and private sector development to foster private sector led growth and help create stable, resilient, and inclusive markets in client countries. Through this work, FCI strengthens the World Bank Group’s evolving approach to development finance: to maximize finance for development and to leverage private sector investments for sustainable and inclusive growth. FCI focuses on six thematic areas: Financial Stability & Integrity; Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure & Access; Markets and Technology; Investment Climate; Long Term Finance; and Climate & Risk Management.

The Markets & Technology (ETIMT) unit is a team of microeconomists, industry specialists and development practitioners. The unit focuses on a thorough understanding of the industrial organization of markets and the mechanisms of adoption of technologies with the objective of removing economic distortions to promote competitive, contestable, innovative and inclusive markets and thus boost productivity growth. The unit’s goal is to provide cutting-edge, evidence-based advice to developing countries around the globe on policies to level the playing field and promote competitive and contestable markets, competition, product market regulation and digital business, innovation and technology adoption as well as non-distortive industry and sectoral development policies (including green competitiveness). The unit also focuses on new technological disruptions to markets to better assess policy implications of these technological changes on existing sectors and markets as well as understanding policy implications of new emerging market structures (e.g. digital platforms). It accomplishes this by carrying out original research, contributing to lending and technical assistance engagements led by FCI regional units, and developing partnerships with multilateral institutions as well as bilateral partners and donors.

The responsibilities of the ETIMT unit include:

- Provide intellectual leadership on issues and policies to support competitive markets, competition, SOEs and private sector, innovation, technology adoption and firm upgrading, as well as effective sectoral development policies (including on hard-hit sectors by COVID19 such as tourism and to respond to green, inclusive and resilient recovery in industries); - Support client countries by delivering lending operations and technical assistance projects in the ETIMT areas of expertise, in collaboration with FCI and other World Bank Group’s regional units. - Create global knowledge on frontier topics in the field of industrial organization - Facilitate knowledge diffusion and adoption of good practices in areas of expertise through policy dialogue, analytical and advisory work, including leading the design and implementation of empirical quantitative structural IO assessments and impact evaluations with a focus on randomized controlled trials (RCTs); - Support World Bank Group senior management through briefings, guidance notes, and other inputs to inform and shape the WBG institutional strategy on ETIMT areas of expertise.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The selected Economist, with a specialization in applied microeconomics of innovation and technology, will be based in Washington, DC. S/he will be a member of the ETIMT Team working under the Digital and innovation pillar with other economists and private sector development specialists and will report to the Practice Manager of the ETIMT Unit.

The candidate must be a motivated and dynamic professional, with solid analytic microeconomic skills and policy-relevant experience, expertise in firm-level dynamics, innovation and applied research, excellent client engagement, and team spirit skills, working as part of the ETIMT unit and in collaboration with other FCI global and regional teams.

The key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

Applied research

- Support the development and dissemination of new analytical frameworks and approaches in the area of digitalization, innovation and technology in collaboration with ETIMT team members as well as other global and regional teams across the FCI Global Practice; - Perform descriptive and econometric analysis, including the application of advanced statistical/econometric techniques; - Provide assistance in some of the research analysis in the digital and innovation pillar, including support in preparing survey datasets (firm-level or similar), including cleaning and organizing the data; - Support other pillar members in the preparation of policy reports, working papers, and contributions to flagship publications; - Work under the guidance of senior team members in the pillar to transform the analytical outputs into operationally relevant WBG products.

Policy dialogue and project preparation

- Support the preparation of research findings to policymakers and clients in developing countries. - Contribute to the preparation of lending or technical assistance engagements.

Impact evaluations:

- Help with the design impact evaluations and provide coordination between the impact evaluation teams and local counterparts. - Work with WBG project teams to provide technical guidance and advocate for strengthening and improving project monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. Visit www.worldbank.org.

BACKGROUND

The World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice (FCI) combines expertise in the financial sector and private sector development to foster private sector led growth and help create stable, resilient, and inclusive markets in client countries. Through this work, FCI strengthens the World Bank Group’s evolving approach to development finance: to maximize finance for development and to leverage private sector investments for sustainable and inclusive growth. FCI focuses on six thematic areas: Financial Stability & Integrity; Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure & Access; Markets and Technology; Investment Climate; Long Term Finance; and Climate & Risk Management.

The Markets & Technology (ETIMT) unit is a team of microeconomists, industry specialists and development practitioners. The unit focuses on a thorough understanding of the industrial organization of markets and the mechanisms of adoption of technologies with the objective of removing economic distortions to promote competitive, contestable, innovative and inclusive markets and thus boost productivity growth. The unit’s goal is to provide cutting-edge, evidence-based advice to developing countries around the globe on policies to level the playing field and promote competitive and contestable markets, competition, product market regulation and digital business, innovation and technology adoption as well as non-distortive industry and sectoral development policies (including green competitiveness). The unit also focuses on new technological disruptions to markets to better assess policy implications of these technological changes on existing sectors and markets as well as understanding policy implications of new emerging market structures (e.g. digital platforms). It accomplishes this by carrying out original research, contributing to lending and technical assistance engagements led by FCI regional units, and developing partnerships with multilateral institutions as well as bilateral partners and donors.

The responsibilities of the ETIMT unit include:

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The selected Economist, with a specialization in applied microeconomics of innovation and technology, will be based in Washington, DC. S/he will be a member of the ETIMT Team working under the Digital and innovation pillar with other economists and private sector development specialists and will report to the Practice Manager of the ETIMT Unit.

The candidate must be a motivated and dynamic professional, with solid analytic microeconomic skills and policy-relevant experience, expertise in firm-level dynamics, innovation and applied research, excellent client engagement, and team spirit skills, working as part of the ETIMT unit and in collaboration with other FCI global and regional teams.

The key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

Applied research

Policy dialogue and project preparation

Impact evaluations:

Selection Criteria

- Advanced Degree in Economics. PhDs or finalizing PhD students - Strong analytical and quantitative skills. - Demonstrated knowledge of econometrics, economics of innovation and technology, applied statistics, and management of large databases and publications in innovation and technology related areas - Experience in survey supervision and implementation preferred. - Strong organizational, research, oral presentation, and written skills. - Publication record in relevant peer-reviewed journals preferred on the core research topics of the unit. - Proven ability to work in a team and intercultural environment. - High level of personal and professional integrity. - Self-starter, results-oriented personality with proven problem-solving skills.

Computer skills:

- Strong STATA skills (other packages such as R, Python) and LaTex are a plus; as well as advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Excel, Word).

Other

- Additional language skills would be a plus (Spanish, French, Portuguese or Arabic).

Computer skills:

Other

World Bank Group Core Competencies

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.

Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable for an additional one year, at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET Appointment of two years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their second-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments.