E T Consultant Research Analyst

World Bank Group • Washington, DC

6d • Onsite

About The Position

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. The Office of the Chief Economist for People Vice Presidency of the World Bank (GGHVP) is seeking a Data Analysts with (i) strong data management and analytical skills and (ii) flexibility to undertake policy-applied analysis on key topics of human development. The Chief Economist office advises the Vice President for People and leads and support the analytical directions of the Practice Group. Among others, the Chief Economist’s office leads and promotes innovative thinking and frontier analytical products on cross-sectoral human development topics. During the FY2026, the People Chief Economist office is working on three main activities: (i) a new Flagship report 2025, (ii) updates to the Human Capital Index (HCI), and (iii) contributions related to human development sectors to the World Bank’s Knowledge Compact and Data Bank initiative. Without human capital, countries cannot sustain economic growth, will not have a workforce that is prepared for the more highly skilled jobs of the future, and will not compete effectively in the global economy. The HD Flagship report is about how human capital accumulates, and what policies can help individuals in low- and middle-income countries build it over their lifetime. Many Bank reports and lending have focused on facilities and the services they provide to build and protect human capital. In this Flagship, the People Chief Economist Office will take a novel—but complementary—approach that brings in families, neighborhoods, and Workplaces as arenas where human capital investments take place. As the report will provide a new understanding of how human capital is built, and which policies promote human capital investments in low- and middle-income countries. It is part of an extensive work program to engage governments and development partners on human capital policy. This agenda is urgent. After the lockdowns and service closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, there was global agreement around the need to restore human capital. Since then, shorter-run priorities have taken over. Without human capital, however, countries will be ill-prepared to take on global challenges such as climate change, respond to crises, and transform economies. In parallel, the People Chief Economist office is working on updating and extending the HCI, which is a cross-country metric measuring the human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by her 18th birthday, given the risks of poor health and poor education prevailing in her country. The HCI brings together measures of different dimensions of human capital: health (child survival, stunting, and adult survival rates) and the quantity and quality of schooling (expected years of school and international test scores). Using estimates of the economic returns to education and health, the components are combined into an index that captures the expected productivity of a child born today as a future worker, relative to a benchmark of complete education and full health. The index was first release in 2018 and last updated in 2020, covering 174 countries. While both of these activities (the flagship and the HCI) will contribute directly to the Knowledge Compact as core analytical products, the data analysts will also contribute to the new Data Bank initiative specifically through (i) data analysis relevant for development a minimum data package for children, adolescents, and youth and (ii) the use of a reproducible research process that leads to other outputs that can be disseminated, such as reproducibility packages and documented data.

Requirements

• Advance degree (Masters plus additional experience) in Economics or related field and 2 years of experience (or equivalent combination of education and experience)
• Strong research and analytical skills, demonstrated through job experience
• Advanced proficiency in Stata. Knowledge of R, Python, MATLAB, GIS software or other analytical tools is highly desirable
• Experience performing econometric analysis
• Experience working with census data, household surveys, labor force participation surveys, panel data, student assessments, geospatial data, and/or other large multi-level datasets
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, and experience producing data methodology/analysis notes
• Proven ability to work without close supervision, to effectively multitask, and to deal with rapidly shifting priorities under pressure.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience working with international organizations is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Research and literature review around topics related to the HD Flagship 2025, HCI, and other key cross-sectoral topics
• Clean, organize, format, and manage complex datasets to carry out any necessary analysis for the production of the HD Flagship 2025, HCI, and any other research topic related to the functions of the office
• Perform analysis as directed, producing tables, graphs and outputs while iterating frequently with the team
• Ensure that all data and code produced remain organized and clean to make the results public and reproducible as needed
• Draft technical notes, presentations, and any other materials to facilitate the drafting of the HD Flagship 2025, accompany the release of the HCI, or for the production of any other analytical efforts.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees