Senior Research Economist - Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Sustainability Analysis at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/121
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL5
Position N°: 50065151

The Complex

• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management is the Bank’s spokesperson on economic matters and the Vice President for the ‘Economics Governance and Knowledge Management Complex’.
• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management is responsible for:
  • Providing leadership and visibility for the Bank on economic, finance, financial governance and socio economic development issues; and coordinate the generation of analytical works to inform operational policy;
  • Systematically emphasize the critical role of knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and their tangible impact on sustainable, inclusive transformation of African economies.
• The Chief Economist/Vice-President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management will inspire, generate and provide direct support to the President and Senior Management of the Bank on a broad range of technical and management issues within the broad remit of economic, finance, public financial governance, management and social economics.

The Hiring Department

• 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 Regional Member Countries can deploy to contain debt distress;
  • Conducting macroeconomic modelling and forecasting for 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 Senior Research Economist - Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Sustainability Analysis is part of a team responsible for undertaking debt sustainability analysis and impact analysis of fiscal policy.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division manager, The Senior Research Economist - Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Sustainability Analysis will:
Construct, manage and assess effectiveness of models for conducing fiscal and debt sustainability analysis:

• Construct and assess the robustness of Debt Sustainability Analysis framework and Debt-Investment-Growth models for analyzing sustainability of public debt of Regional Member Countries.
• Carry out simulations and determination of domestic resource capacities of Regional Member Countries (optimality of tax revenues and financing requirements and sources); assess efficiency of public expenditure.

Plans, develops and implements research programs and projects. This involves:

• Conduct research to assess impact of different public borrowing requirements on investment, growth and debt sustainability.
• Contribute to the preparation of flagship publications and other knowledge products such as African Economic Outlook; African Development Report; Economic Frontier Research and Bank Policy Currents; books, reports, etc.
• Provide comparative research analysis on the implications of public debt dynamics for African economies and Bank Group operations.
• Represent the Division in country teams and interdepartmental working groups within the Bank; review operations documents; and provide analytical input on all matters related to fiscal policy, public debt and public expenditure management.

Represent the Bank in international and regional conferences, seminars and workshops where research  papers will be presented:

• Organize and participate in internal Research Seminars and/or International Conferences 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.

Perform other tasks as requested by the Division Manager:

• Prepare funding request proposals to mobilize research funds from other organizations and agencies.
• Participate in writing and reviewing of policy statements and briefs for Senior Management on economic development issues, particularly on dynamics of public debt  and broad macroeconomic issues.

Selection Criteria
Including Desirable Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Hold at least a Ph.D Degree in Development Macroeconomics; Public Sector Economics; Monetary Economics; Econometrics or related discipline.
• Have a minimum of (5) years of relevant professional and research experience in multilateral or research institution in Africa or other low income countries.
• Strong publications record in reputable peer review journals and strong evidence of practical experience and familiarity with fiscal and public debt sustainability analysis tools.
• Ability to design and construct models for public debt sustainability analysis.
• Ability to analyze incentive structure and distortionary impact of subsidies, grants and other fiscal policies on income distribution and public sector investments.
• Ability to identify the appropriate methods and techniques to conduct research on fiscal incidence analysis and present the results.
• Proven ability to lead and manage small team of researchers in specific projects and/or tasks; capacity to initiate innovative research ideas and techniques in order to improve fiscal policy making in Regional Member Countries.
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of leading econometrics software packages (Matlab, Eviews, R, Stata, GAMS, etc.) and in Microsoft suites (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access) and SAP.