Chief Research Economist-Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/19/079
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50093608

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the VP for the Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Complex.
• The Complex is responsible for (i) providing leadership and visibility for the Bank on economic, finance, financial governance and socio economic development issues; and coordinate the generation of analytical work to inform the Bank’s operational engagement and policy dialogue; (ii) systematically emphasize the critical role of knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and their tangible impact on sustainable, inclusive transformation of African economies.

The Hiring Department/Division:

• The Macroeconomics Policy, Forecasting and Research Department is dedicated to the generation of high quality knowledge in the area of development in Africa.
• It provides technical support to operations and regional member countries through rigorous analytical work; engages in impactful policy dialogue with decision-making bodies within and outside of the Bank; and most importantly enhance the operational effectiveness of the Bank in achieving the High 5s.
• The activities of the department are structured around the Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting on one side, and the Microeconomics, Institutional and Development Impact on the other.

The Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and Forecasting Division is responsible for the following, inter alia:

• Conducting policy research and debt sustainability analysis in order to improve the Bank’s macroeconomic surveillance and understanding of sovereign debt risk profile and the policy tools that Regional Member Countries can deploy to contain debt distress;
• Conducting macroeconomic analysis, modelling and forecasting to inform decisions made by the Bank’s the Regional Member Countries;
• Providing cutting edge analytical support to Senior Management through timely and rigorous economic intelligence work;
• Collaborating with partner institutions; research think tanks and universities, both within and outside Africa, in order to deepen analytical capacity and broaden the scope and outreach of the Bank’s research work and
• Leading the production and dissemination of all the Bank’s flagship publications and other knowledge products on Africa’s emerging macroeconomic and development issues and on the Bank’s High 5s priority areas.

The Position

• The Chief Research Economist–Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting, is responsible for leading research work focusing on macroeconomic issues that are relevant for the Bank’s regional member countries and its operational engagement, including research on the Bank’s High 5 agenda.
• The role involves the construction of macroeconomic models and conducting debt sustainability analysis to improve the Bank’s modelling portfolio for evidenced based and enhanced policy dialogue in the Regional Member and improving macroeconomic analytical content of its operations.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager Macroeconomic Policy, Debt Sustainability and forecasting, the Chief Research Economist will:

• Develop and lead research programs and projects focusing on macroeconomic issues of particular relevance to the Bank’s RMCs and its High 5 agenda. This involves:
• Initiate, oversee and contribute to research projects focusing on macroeconomics issues using established and proven quantitative techniques/methods.
• Lead the preparation of Flagship publications and knowledge products such as the African Economic Outlook; African Development Report; Economic Frontier Research and Bank Policy Currents; books, reports, etc.
• Lead the design and construction of a suite of structural macro-econometric models; Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium, Global Vector Autoregressive Analysis and other simpler Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average models.
• Provide senior management and regional member countries with comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and macroeconomic projections of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economies and Bank Group operations.
• Deliver inputs in collaborative research and knowledge management activities carried out jointly with regional and international organizations, research and capacity building institutions in Africa, development research centers and universities.

Provide technical and analytical inputs into the work of Operations Complexes. This involves:

• Provide support and input to regional, investment and technical assistance project teams on macro-economic issues related to country/regional context, macroeconomic trends, country, region or sector -specific analysis. This entails among others Providing input into Country Strategy Papers and budget support operations;
• Carry out simulations and forecasts based on the models developed and lead in the disseminating results and provide advice to the Bank’s senior management and regional member countries to strengthen policy dialogue.
• Represent the Division in country teams and interdepartmental working groups within the Bank; review operations documents.

Participate in the Bank’s dissemination efforts of its analytical and research products with the view to help build capacity of RMCs and position the Bank as a thought leader:

• Lead the preparation of knowledge products such as African Economic Outlook; African Development Report; Economic Frontier Research and Bank Policy Currents; books, reports, etc.
• Organize internal Research Seminars and/or International Conferences such as the African Economic Conference on Development Policy Issues.
• Contribute to the training and capacity development activities in the Bank and in regional member countries.
• Publish research output in the Bank’s working paper series and reputable peer reviewed journals.
•  Organize and contribute to international and regional conferences, seminars and workshops.

Act as a mentor for junior staff and support management:

• Provide leadership in writing and reviewing of policy statements and briefs for Senior Management on economic development issues.
• Prepare funding request proposals to mobilize research funds from other organizations and agencies.
• Assist in the management of the division’s HR and financial affairs and mentor more junior staff.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold a minimum of a Master’s degree in Economics, Economic modelling, Macroeconomics; Econometrics, Development Macroeconomics; Applied Statistics, or any relevant field.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of professional experience in development policy research and analysis with focus on Africa or low-income countries.
• Specialization in industrial policy, agricultural, energy economics is a strong advantage.
• Strong publications record in reputable peer review journals.
• Having experience in international financial institutions, or private sector experience will be an added advantage.
• Strong ability to build and maintain large country level and multi-country macroeconomic models.
• Extensive practical knowledge of advanced econometric methods and ability to handle, process and analyze large time series datasets using packages such as Matlab, R, Eviews.
• Ability to lead the identification of appropriate methods and techniques to conduct cutting edge empirical research and present the results.
• Capacity to come up with innovative research ideas and techniques to improve research outcomes.
• Willingness to learn and take advice from the supervisor and peers.
• Capacity to work independently and meet tight deadlines.
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of standard software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.