Back Consultant: Analyzing the Informal Economy and Agent Behavior

Post of Duty: Remote

The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.

About this position

The Country Department Caribbean Group (CCB) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or the Bank) is looking for an expert on behavioral economics with demonstrated significant influence on the profession through their research and publications to provide scientific and technical guidance to the Bank’s technical coordinators and project teams participating in the research network project: Understanding the Informal Economy and Associated Behaviors in Economic Agents: Case of Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Suriname. The consultant will serve as an external research advisor and will support the technical coordinators of the project in guiding the research.

What you’ll do

• Support the technical coordinators in writing the call for research proposals.
• Support the technical coordinators in reviewing submitted research proposals and provide recommendations regarding the selection of the top research proposals (based on the results of the call for research proposals) and provide adjustments to received proposals, if needed.
• Participate and provide analytical guidance and written comments to authors of the studies during two discussion seminars that will be held via Zoom.
• Review first and second drafts and provide written analytical guidance and feedback to authors of the research studies, including peer review of final edited drafts of the studies. A peer review form will be provided.
• Support the technical coordinators in writing an analytical summary piece of the research project for dissemination purposes.

  Deliverables and Payments Timeline

  • Written technical assessments and recommendations to proposals to be shared with project coordinators. An evaluation template will be provided to rank proposals.
  • Written technical assessments of first drafts of the studies to be shared with selected teams.
  • Written technical assessments of second drafts of the studies to be shared with selected teams.
  • Written technical review of the third draft and written peer-review of final drafts for the purpose of publishing the studies as IDB Working Papers.
  • Written contributions to a chapter summarizing the project and its findings.

    Deliverable #

    Percentage

    Planned Date to Submit

    1

    20

    April, 2025

    2

    20

    June, 2025

    3

    📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

    ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

    20

    August, 2025

    4

    20

    October, 2025

    5

    20

    December, 2025

    What you'll need

    • Education: Master’s degree in economics. PhD. In economics is preferred.
    • Experience: At least 10 years of relevant professional experience or a record of academic publication on the topic.
    • Languages: Proficiency in Spanish and English, spoken and written, is required.

      Key skills

      • Learn continuously.
      • Collaborate and share knowledge.
      • Focus on clients.
      • Communicate and influence.
      • Innovate and try new things.

        Requirements

        • Citizenship: You are a citizen of one of our 48-member countries.
        • Consanguinity: You have no family members (up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, including spouse) working at the IDB, IDB Invest, or IDB Lab.

          Type of contract and duration

          • Type of contract: Products and External Services Consultant (PEC), Lump Sum.
          • Length of contract: 9 months.
          • Work Location: Remote.

            Our culture

            At the IDB Group we work so everyone brings their best and authentic selves to work, willing to try new approaches without fear, and where they are accountable and rewarded for their actions.

            Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) are at the center of our organization. We celebrate all dimensions of diversity and encourage women, LGBTQ+ people, persons with disabilities, Afro-descendants, and Indigenous people to apply.