TERMS OF REFERENCE

Short Term Consultancy – ETIIC Applied Research

Background

The Equitable Growth, Finance and Institution VPU leads the World Bank Group’s dialogue and
engagement with clients in macroeconomics, fiscal policy, trade, competition and investment. This team
offers world-class technical expertise and an extensive global footprint to serve the needs of our clients.
In our day-to-day engagement with countries, EFI supports Ministries of Finance, Trade, Economy and
Production in their pursuit of reform agendas conducive to strengthening inclusive growth led by the
private sector. EFI responds to client countries’ development needs with systematic country diagnostics,
country strategies, policy lending, and country private sector diagnostics as well as other country-level
and global analytical products that support World Bank Group engagements.

EFI’s Global Investment Climate unit (ETIIC) provides analytical, advisory and lending support to client
governments. The team helps developing country governments enact reforms that lead to increased
investment and more competitive markets. The unit comprises the following thematic teams focused on
(1) Investment Policy and Promotion, (2) Business Regulation, and (3) Applied Research.

About the Position

ETIIC seeks to hire in a consulting role a knowledgeable and highly motivated professional with strong
research and analysis skills to support the applied research and advisory projects in the areas of
investment policy and promotion and private sector development, with a specific focus on sustainability
and green investment.

Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibility of the Consultant will be to support ETIIC projects. The Consultant will:

• Contribute to the preparation of research and analysis tools and products to support a research
agenda on the intersection of investment climate policy and environmental sustainability, and
more broadly in support of the WBG’s Jobs and Economic Transformation agenda (better jobs
for more people), and WBG’s COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.
• Conduct reviews of theoretical and empirical literature on private sector development topics,
such as investment policy and business regulatory environment. Topics include, the effects of
private sector development on environmental outcomes; the effects of sustainability trends on
investor preferences and behavior; the role of FDI as a driver of job creation and sectoral labor
re-allocation; types of FDI that are most effective in creating employment in developing
countries; type of policies that can assist with FDI-based job creation, among others.
• Undertake research on policies, projects, and institutions in developing countries to develop
case studies and inform the preparation of best-practice guidance and policy advice.
• Support key quantitative and survey research tasks, including research design, generating
hypotheses and research questions, design questionnaires, sampling, survey administration, and
analysis of data.

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 • Contribute to quantitative research on private sector development topics through econometric
analyses - including developing code, do files, and methodological notes, and documenting
results.
• Synthesize research findings, best practices, and analytical insights into effective publications,
knowledge notes, and presentations for internal as well as external audiences.
• Undertake other research and advisory tasks to respond to organizational priorities.

The consultant shall be selected based on the following criteria:

• Advanced degree (Masters or PhD or equivalent) in economics, policy studies, environmental
science, and other related fields.
• 2-4 years of research and analysis experience, preferably with exposure to data analysis,
research design, impact measurement, and professional writing.
• Knowledge of development challenges in private sector development, with exposure/ interest in
investment climate and foreign direct investment.
• Knowledge of environmental issues in private sector development, such as energy policies,
sustainable production, and environmental standards and permitting.
• Strong research, analysis, and writing skills, including the ability to synthesize material quickly
and succinctly.
• Strong grasp of econometrics and experience with experimental and quasi-experimental
research design
• Advanced skills in STATA (or other platform for data analysis) and MS Office (i.e. MS Excel, MS
Word, MS PowerPoint)
• Moderate data management and programming skills to manipulate and clean large datasets
(e.g. Orbis, business census, and other development datasets). Knowledge of SQL and Python
can be an advantage.
• Strong organizational skills, keen attention to detail, and capacity to manage multiple tasks
simultaneously is desirable
• Comfortable working with minimal supervision
• Given the time sensitivity of this task, short-term availability is critical.

Level of Effort, Timeline, and Reporting Arrangements

The contract is expected to begin in early October 2021. The contract will be for 100 days with
possibility of extension and additional days until June 30th, 2022.

Work location – World Bank in Washington DC or remote (as agreed with the Task Team Lead / TTL).

Reporting - The consultant will report to Abhishek Saurav (Sr. Economist) as TTL.

Application

Interested candidates should send their CVs, a brief writing sample (preferably economic and policy
research), and an example Stata do file to Abhishek Saurav (asaurav@worldbank.org) with CC to Mark
Albertson (malbertson@worldbank.org) no later than September 23rd, 2021. Candidates should indicate
in the subject line: “Short Term Consultancy – ETIIC Applied Research”.

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Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview and may be asked to undergo a timed
assignment.