African Development Bank (AfDB) - Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank's development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Chief Research Economist - Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting
Reference: ADB/17/ 260
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:
- 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 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 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 Chief Research Economist - Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting, is responsible for leading 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:
1.) Macroeconomic Intelligence Analysis of African economies:
- 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.
- Carry out and authenticate macroeconomic simulations and forecasts based on the models developed and lead in disseminating results and providing advice to the Bank’s senior management and the Regional Member Countries in order to strengthen policy dialogue.
2.) Research Programs and Projects:
- Lead the conduct of research in the areas of macroeconomics using established quantitative techniques/methods.
- Lead in undertaking cross-country and regional macroeconomic research and analysis to improve the Bank’s macroeconomic surveillance in the Regional Member Countries.
- Provide the Bank and Regional Member Countries with comparative research analysis, socio-economic data and macroeconomic analysis of the most widely used socio-economic parameters relating to Africa’s economies and Bank Group operations.
- Represent the Division in country teams and interdepartmental working groups within the Bank; review operations documents.
3.) Capacity Development:
- Lead the organization and participate in internal research seminars and/or international conferences on development policy issues.
- 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.
- Lead in developing 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.
- Lead the preparation of knowledge products such as African Economic Outlook; African Development Report; Economic Frontier Research and Bank Policy Currents; books, reports, etc.
- Assist the Division Manager, whenever called upon, in the management of the Division’s activities.
Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:
- Hold at least a PhD 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.
- Strong publications record in reputable peer review journals.
- Having 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.
Application Closing Date
27th June, 2017.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online