Research Economist

Job #:
req38224

Organization:
World Bank Group

Sector:
Economics

Grade:
GF

Term Duration:
2 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment

Location:
Washington, DC,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic

Closing Date:
9/11/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

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. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

About Development Impact (DECDI)

Development Impact (DECDI) in the World Bank's Development Economics Vice-Presidency is responsible for generating rigorous evidence and working with governments and other clients/partners to leverage data, advanced analytics, experiments, and research to drive effective and cost-effective public policy. By developing systems that generate, organize, and apply evidence for decision-making, DECDI promotes a shift from prescriptive advice toward adaptive problem-solving grounded in real-time data, experimentation, and institutional learning. The objective is to increase efficiency and effectiveness at both the project and the portfolio level, support the WBG's ambition to function as a Knowledge Bank, and achieve better and more sustainable outcomes.

Over the past two decades, development research has evolved from conducting individual experiments to building institutional platforms for adaptive delivery, evidence use, and AI-enabled policy learning. DECDI now operates across the full knowledge cycle: generating evidence, organizing it into usable systems, embedding it in delivery, and applying data and AI to improve outcomes. DECDI thus enables WBG operations, client governments, and development partners to make better decisions from design to delivery.

LEADS (Learn. Adapt. Scale.) is DECDI's platform for embedding learning, testing, and real-time adaptation into operational portfolios, and the mechanism through which DEC contributes to the Bank Group's system for smart replication and scaling. WBG Verticals identify the most promising sectoral solutions, Regions lead adoption and scaling with clients, and DEC supplies impact evidence, predictive insight, validation, innovation, and adaptation. LEADS is currently embedded in more than 120 projects across 52 countries representing over $32 billion in financing, with scale-up ongoing.

DECDI is recruiting a Research Economist to support the delivery of LEADS across regions and verticals. The department is organized in five research labs (Planet, People, Prosperity, Infrastructure and Digital, and Behavioral Science). Each lab runs several research programs corresponding to WBG Global Practices and cross-cutting topics, and teams are structured so that what is learned in one sector or country can be used in others. The successful candidate will be placed where their skills and interests best match WBG demands and DECDI's delivery commitments.

Notes on the selection process
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to present a paper in a research seminar and to an interview. These will be conducted shortly after the deadline for applying.

Roles and Responsibilities
• Design and execute research embedded in World Bank Group (WBG) operations across DECDI's sector programs, using randomized and quasi-experimental methods to identify what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
• Deliver LEADS engagements with WBG Regions, Country Management Units, and Client Governments, including portfolio design workshops, embedding learning agendas in projects and country portfolios, and supporting data and evidence-based adaptive project and program delivery.
• Run rapid experiments and A/B tests at decision nodes along the implementation chain, measure cost-effectiveness, and identify the delivery constraints that determine whether results hold at scale.
• Contribute to the global public goods that make evidence usable across and outside of the WBG.
• Produce policy-relevant outputs, including academic papers, policy briefs, and presentations, and build client capacity through LEADS workshops and DECDI training programs.
• Represent DECDI in internal and external technical and policy forums, including working with development partners and donors to scale up research and maximize policy impact of DIME work.
• Promote and disseminate DECDI's work through contributing to research papers, reports, presentations, briefs, blogs, and other dissemination channels.
• Contribute to training and capacity building of clients and partners.
• Participate in working paper and corporate reviews, and contribute to corporate functions.

Selection Criteria
• PhD in economics, public policy, or a related field with a minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in impact evaluation, empirical research, and development policy and program design.
• Command of causal inference methods, including randomized and quasi-experimental designs, and proficiency in Stata, R, or Python; familiarity with reproducible research workflows is an advantage.
• Experience working with field, administrative, or survey data in developing-country settings, including data collection under real operational constraints.
• Interest in working across sectors and in moving between research questions and operational problem-solving.
• Demonstrated ability to work with government counterparts and operational teams, including the judgment to adapt technical advice to local institutional realities.
• Demonstrated interest in development work and the World Bank Group's mission.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical results into decisions policymakers can act on.
• Ability to work effectively in diverse, team-based environments, to manage multiple priorities within tight deadlines, and to travel regularly to client countries.
• Proficiency in English. Proficiency in French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Arabic is considered an advantage.

This internal requisition is open to WBG andIMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case anexternal candidate applies, their application will not be considered.

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of urgency: Anticipate and quickly respond to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful risk-taking: Challenge the status quo and push boundaries to achieve greater impact.
3. Empowerment and accountability: Empower yourself and others to act and hold each other accountable for results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.