Economist, Washington, DC

• Organization: World Bank
• Country: United States
• City: Washington
• Office: World Bank HQ Washington

The World Bank
1818 H St NW
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 473-1000

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Closing date: Monday, 16 November 2015

Background / General description
The Macro Fiscal Management Global Practice is looking for an experienced CGE Modeller to work with the Lead of the Macroeconomic Modelling and Statistics Global Solutions Group. The solutions group acts as a bank-wide resource on macroeconomic modelling issues, and assists staff and client governments to develop and employ appropriate modelling techniques to particular problems, while continuously working to developing new and improve existing models. The Solutions Group is also a focal point for knowledge dissemination in the area of macroeconomic modelling and statistics.
GLOBAL PRACTICES & CROSS-CUTTING SOLUTIONS AREAS
The 14 GPs are: Agriculture; Education; Energy and Extractives; Environment and Natural Resources; Finance and Markets; Governance; Health, Nutrition and Population; Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management; Poverty; Social Protection and Labor; Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience; Trade and Competitiveness; Transport and ICT; and Water.
The 5 CCSAs are: Climate Change; Fragility, Conflict and Violence; Gender; Jobs; and Public-Private Partnerships. The new operating model is part of a broader internal reform aimed at delivering the best of the World Bank Group to our clients, so that together we can achieve the twin goals of (1) ending extreme poverty by 2030, and (2) promote shared prosperity for the bottom 40% of the population in every developing country.

The Global Practice for Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management (MFM) comprises about 320 staff working across more than 100 countries. The Practice houses the Bank's country economists as well as professional staff with expertise in macroeconomics, fiscal policy, growth, and statistics. About fifty percent of MFM professional staff is decentralized to the field working very closely with the CMUs and in proximity to clients. MFM professionals most often work across sectors helping carry out key integrative functions. In this context MFM professionals are responsible for the preparation and delivery of the majority of the Bank's Development Policy Operations using both IDA and IBRD resources. MFM professionals also lead or participate in a wide variety of AAA and client advisory work requiring an integrative functions that add to the core MFM expertise. As such MFM staff often lead or participate in the preparation of Strategic Country Diagnostics, Country Economic Memorandums and cross sector Public Expenditure Reviews. An important additional element of engagement in macroeconomic and fiscal policies is carried through work on debt management supported by the Debt Management Facility. Knowledge and learning is a central part of MFM with work focused on 5 thematic areas: (a) macroeconomics; (b) fiscal policy; (c) growth; (d) economic management in resource rich environments; and (e) macroeconomic modelling & statistics.
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 3 year term appointment.
Duties and Accountabilities
Building on existing tools, the successful candidate will work with the CGE modelling team of the Macroeconomic Modelling and Global Solutions Group to develop CGE simulations platform allowing to assess long-term economic developments issues on diverse topics such as fiscal reform, energy subsidies, trade policy, commodities prices shocks, BOP shocks, and pension reforms. The selected candidate will be asked to support the team's CGE modelling work, using a global CGE model, as well as simplified country level models that can be applied to explore and quantify policy options in data poor as well as data rich developing countries. The candidate may also be asked to contribute to and maintain the MFM GP macro-structural model of the global economy (MFMod). The candidate should be willing to work with client governments to transfer the knowledge necessary to run such models in their domestic context.
Selection Criteria
Required Competencies

• General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills - Possesses a demonstrated track record of working with economic and sectoral data and analytical tools and models to conduct economic analyses and produce user-friendly written outputs; understands underlying statistical concepts.
• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Understands policy making process; distills operationally relevant recommendations/lessons for clients.
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Identifies and assesses policy issues and plays an active role in the dialogue with the government and/or other stakeholders.
• Integrative Skills - Working to develop an integrated view across all facets of current sector.
• Macroeconomic Skills and Country Economics Experience - Demonstrates solid macroeconomic modeling skills and knowledge; understands how different accounts in an economy fit together and links among real, monetary, trade, debt and balance of payments accounts.
• Written and Verbal Communication - Delivers information effectively in support of team or workgroup, including preparation of reports/papers, and disseminate key findings to both internal and external stakeholders;
• Lead and Innovate- Develops innovative solutions.
• Deliver Results for Clients- Proactively addresses clients' stated and unstated needs.
• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries- Collaborates across boundaries, gives own perspective and willingly receives diverse perspectives.
• Create, Apply and Share Knowledge- Applies knowledge across WBG to strengthen solutions for internal and/or external clients.
• Make Smart Decisions- Interprets a wide range of information and pushes to move forward.

Other Selection Criteria (Level GF)

1. Advanced degree in economics, finance or public policy (preferably a Ph.D.) with specialization in CGE modelling (experience with micro-simulation techniques, and macro modeling would also be an advantage);.
2. Experience with (CGE) models such as GTAP, GDyn, LINKAGE, ENVISAGE, and MAMS.
3. Experience with macro-structural modelling, with strong macroeconomic and quantitative reasoning skills.
4. Experience modifying existing models for specific problems.
5. Knowledge of programming in GAMS, GEMPACK, EViews, Stata, although not essential, would be an advantage.
6. Experience with WBG macro-economic and fiscal policy work, including evidence of working across technical disciplines/Global Practices.
7. Experience conducting capacity building and training in CGE and macroeconomic modelling.
8. Excellent communication and presentation skills -- both verbal and written. Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly on complex topics to a wide variety of audiences.
9. Excellent interpersonal and negotiations skills and ability to work flexibly, creatively and to multitask as the need arises.
10. A high degree of self-motivation, positive attitude and drive.
11. Strong commitment towards team work and knowledge sharing, especially across the World Bank Group.