World Bank Senior Economist - Competition, Mexico
The World Bank Group’s Investment Climate Department (CIC) assists governments of developing countries and transition economies in reforming their business environments, with support provided to reforms at the economy as well as industry and sector level. It assists World Band Group colleagues in the design and delivery of advisory services and other operational work and develops knowledge products for staff and clients.
CIC: (i) anchors the Investment Climate Business Line, one of IFC's four Advisory Services Business Lines, and handles the global dimension of its work; (ii) anchors the Investment Climate Global Practice of the Bank's Finance and Private Sector Development Network (which covers six Practices); (iii) implements MIGA’s technical assistance mandate; and (iv) manages the multi-donor Facility for Investment Climate Advisory Services (FIAS), which funds a large part of the department’s activities, the Health in Africa (HiA) initiative, as well as a new work program on private infrastructure.
CIC is organized into four units, also called global service or product lines: Business Regulation, International Trade and Investment, Investment Climate for Industry, Private Participation in Infrastructure and Social Sectors. The Private Participation in Infrastructure and Social Sectors (CICIS) is in charge of developing the competition policy practice. The practice is a joint World Bank/IFC endeavour that caters to both policy and project related advisory work on promotion of competition and effective implementation of competition policy at the economy and sectoral level. The IC Competition Policy Team helps client governments to assess constraints that impede the development of competitive market structures in key strategic sectors, design the legal and institutional framework for an effective competition policy in emerging markets, and mainstream the principles of competition policy within broader investment climate reforms.
Since promoting competition is a guiding principle of the IC strategy for the next years, CICIS is seeking a Senior competition specialist based in Mexico who can lead implementation of the competition program in LAC. This person will be based in the WB country office and will collaborate closely with all relevant units: regional Financial and Private Sector Department, regional Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Department, regional IFC teams, etc.
Scope of Work
The scope of the work will fall into the following broad areas:
1. Identification and assessment of market competition constraints, through competition rapid assessment tools and standard competition indicators and the application of quantitative and qualitative analytical tools to evaluate competition issues in client countries.
2. Designing action/reform plans and technical assistance programs on competition policy, that will lead to successful achievement of objectives based on feasibility analysis (prioritization and sequence) of reforms and stakeholders analysis
3. Support clients in implementing pro-competition market regulations through technical advice, policy dialogue and support based on competition policy international best practice.
4. Measure the impact of competition policy reforms in client countries and develop indicators to assess the status of competition and competition policy in client countries.
5. Mainstream the principles of competition policy within broader investment climate reforms to allow for efficient entry and avoid distortions to the level playing field.
Areas covered by the competition policy practice include:
• Reform measures to open markets to competition: elimination/removal of: (i) regulations that restrict the number of firms or ban private investment, (ii) controls on prices and other market variables, (iii) rules that discriminate against certain firms and distort the level playing field.
• Reform measures to increase the effective enforcement of competition policies: horizontal agreements, merger regulations and state aid policies.
Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year term appointment.
a) Lead operational support and management of projects with competition policy components, with a focus on removing sector-specific constraints to the development of competition in the real sectors (e.g. agribusiness), infrastructure and social sectors (e.g health).
b) Develop analytical documents and technical assistance as required to provide cross-support to World Bank Group regional work related to competition policies (e.g. antitrust policies).
c) Play an active role as member of a global IC Competition Policy core team and ensure optimal client response, knowledge generation and dissemination of best practice on competition policies across countries and regions.
d) Develop, jointly with the competition policy team leader, knowledge pieces to mainstream the application of competition policy principles across investment climate products (e.g. guidelines for practitioners, rapid assessment tools to identify reform potential in selected key strategic sectors, competition indicators) as well as indicators and statistics on the status of competition at the economy and industry level.
e) Take the lead in developing collaborative partnerships with external partners and all other World Bank Group teams involved in promoting competition in client countries (FPD, PREM, other IFC Advisory Services, and IFC Investment) and contribute to a coherent strategy across teams for the benefit of the client country.
f) Advise regional officers on the competition dimension of their reform programs and ensure competition issues are adequately captured by the product specific M&E systems.
g) Contribute to the development of monitoring and evaluation indicators for competition interventions as well as analyze the impact of competition policy interventions.
• Master's degree in Economics, Public Policy, Public Administration, Development, Law and Economics, and other relevant field. Graduate studies in applied microeconomics, industrial organization, economic regulation and/or competition economics are required. Training in empirical microeconometrics is a plus.
• Minimum of 8 years of directly relevant professional experience ––on both private and public sector - on (i) competition policy reforms at the economy-wide level and (ii) on improving conditions for the development of competition in key economic sectors, including policy formulation and implementation in developing country context. Experience as a practitioner in antitrust policies, providing direct advice to the private sector and case-handling competition cases, is a plus. Experience in agribusiness, health and infrastructure, including implementing economic regulation and pro-competition sectoral policies is a plus.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently.
• General Economic Knowledge and Analytical Skills - Possesses Cross-country knowledge in economic specialty and demonstrates ability to link the macro, institutional, and micro-level behaviors; able to support findings/policy recommendations with credible analysis and tools.
• Knowledge and Experience in Development Arena - Translates technical and cross-country knowledge into practical applications and contributions to country and sector strategies; interacts with clients at the policy level.
• Policy Dialogue Skills - Anticipates needs and requests in the field and conducts independent policy discussions with representatives of the government and non-government partners.
• Integrative Skills - Understands relevant cross-sectoral areas how they are interrelated; able to undertake cross-sectoral work in lending and non-lending operations.
• Written and Verbal Communication - Demonstrates the ability to influence and persuade others to accept ideas and suggestions (such as counterparts in government, international partner organizations, academia, and Bank colleagues, senior staff and managers)
• Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
• Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Shows leadership in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied levels.
• Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.
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