Economic Research Assistant Jobs in Silver Spring, MD

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.
About Development Impact (DECDI)
Development Impact (DECDI) in the World Bank's Development Economics Vice-Presidency is responsible for generating rigorous evidence and working with governments and other clients/partners to leverage data, advanced analytics, experiments, and research to drive effective and cost-effective public policy. By developing systems that generate, organize, and apply evidence for decision-making, DECDI promotes a shift from prescriptive advice toward adaptive problem-solving grounded in real-time data, experimentation, and institutional learning. The objective is to increase efficiency and effectiveness at both the project and the portfolio level, support the WBG's ambition to function as a Knowledge Bank, and achieve better and more sustainable outcomes.
Over the past two decades, development research has evolved from conducting individual experiments to building institutional platforms for adaptive delivery, evidence use, and AI-enabled policy learning. DECDI now operates across the full knowledge cycle: generating evidence, organizing it into usable systems, embedding it in delivery, and applying data and AI to improve outcomes. DECDI thus enables WBG operations, client governments, and development partners to make better decisions from design to delivery.
LEADS (Learn. Adapt. Scale.) is DECDI's platform for embedding learning, testing, and real-time adaptation into operational portfolios, and the mechanism through which DEC contributes to the Bank Group's system for smart replication and scaling. WBG Verticals identify the most promising sectoral solutions, Regions lead adoption and scaling with clients, and DEC supplies impact evidence, predictive insight, validation, innovation, and adaptation. LEADS is currently embedded in more than 120 projects across 52 countries representing over 32 billion in financing, with scale-up ongoing.
DECDI is recruiting a Research Economist to support the delivery of LEADS across regions and verticals. The department is organized in five research labs (Planet, People, Prosperity, Infrastructure and Digital, and Behavioral Science). Each lab runs several research programs corresponding to WBG Global Practices and cross-cutting topics, and teams are structured so that what is learned in one sector or country can be used in others. The successful candidate will be placed where their skills and interests best match WBG demands and DECDI's delivery commitments.
Notes on the selection process
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a research seminar and to an interview. These will be conducted between September 14 and September 25, 2026.
Roles and Responsibilities
Design and execute research embedded in World Bank Group (WBG) operations across DECDI's sector programs, using randomized and quasi-experimental methods to identify what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
Deliver LEADS engagements with WBG Regions, Country Management Units, and Client Governments, including portfolio design workshops, embedding learning agendas in projects and country portfolios, and supporting data and evidence-based adaptive project and program delivery.
Run rapid experiments and A/B tests at decision nodes along the implementation chain, measure cost-effectiveness, and identify the delivery constraints that determine whether results hold at scale.
Contribute to the global public goods that make evidence usable across and outside of the WBG.
Produce policy-relevant outputs, including academic papers, policy briefs, and presentations, and build client capacity through LEADS workshops and DECDI training programs.
Represent DECDI in internal and external technical and policy forums, including working with development partners and donors to scale up research and maximize policy impact of DIME work.
Promote and disseminate DECDI's work through contributing to research papers, reports, presentations, briefs, blogs, and other dissemination channels.
Contribute to training and capacity building of clients and partners.
Participate in working paper and corporate reviews, and contribute to corporate functions.