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【Job Opening】Development Financing Research Program Research Specialist
Public Development Banks (PDBs) and Development Financing Institutions (DFIs) are government-sponsored financial institutions with explicit official missions to promote public policy objectives and potent policy instruments for fixing market failures, incubating markets, coordinating public policies with stakeholders, and promoting economic structural transformation in an equitable and sustainable manner. PDBs and DFIs are experiencing a renaissance worldwide as their usefulness is increasingly recognized by both academics and policymakers. However, academic research examining their roles, operations, and effectiveness are limited.
In an effort to fill this gap, the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University (INSE), sponsored by the Ford Foundation, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC), has launched the International Research Initiative on PDBs and DFIs.
To turn the research into policy impact, the first Finance in Common Summit was held in Paris, France in November 2020, gathering the whole development bank community, comprising more than 450 PDBs and other key stakeholders (governments, central banks, private sector, civil society, think tanks and academia, etc.). Building upon the positive results of the first edition of the Finance in Common Summit, Public Development Banks will convene for a second time in Autumn 2021 in Rome to unleash their potential for fostering economic structural transformation in an equitable and sustainable manner.
Position: Research Specialist
Type: Full Time
Research Field: Development Finance
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jiajun Xu
The number of recruitment: 2
Compensation: The remuneration package will be highly competitive, commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Location: Beijing, China
Principal Investigator Profile：
Jiajun Xu
Jiajun Xu is an Assistant Professor and the Executive Deputy Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University. Xu worked in the United Nations and World Bank and currently acts as the General Secretary of the Global Research Consortium on Economic Structural Transformation (GReCEST), and the Invited Researcher at the Public Policy Research Center of the Counsellors’ Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. Her research focuses on development financing and global economic governance. She has published in top academic journals in the field of international development such as Journal of International Development and Institute of Development Studies Bulletin. She is the guest editor of China Economic Review and the lead author of Global Development Financing Report (2015) and Mapping Development Financing Institutions Worldwide (2019). Her academic monograph Beyond US Hegemony in International Development was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017, and received the 8th Peikang Chang Development Economics Outstanding Achievement Award. She has led a team to build a pilot database on Development Financing Institutions (DFIs) worldwide and pioneered research in the field of development finance. As the co-chair and co-coordinator, she has initiated the International Research Initiative on DFI Working Groups where leading scholars and experts are brought together to foster academically rigorous research on development financing, and enhance its policy impact through the joint effort with such platforms as International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and association of Development Finance Institutions. Xu holds a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford.
Qualifications:
● A master degree in accounting, finance, economics, statistics, information management, computer and related fields. Excellent fresh graduates could be also considered.
● A good command of English.
● Experience in database construction or academic and policy research on development financing is preferred.
● Good French/Spanish/Portuguese reading skill is preferred.
Job Description:
Building the world's first Development Financing Institutions database through manual data collection or machine learning.
Participating in the academic or policy research on the basis of the database building. The optional research topics include, but are not limited to:
● The rationales for establishing DFIs, and comparative advantages of DFIs compared with alternative means of government intervention in financial systems to fix market failures.
● Research on the performance evaluation of DFIs and its determinants.
● The economics analysis of institutional design of DFIs by studying their charters from the perspective of contract theory.
● The role of development banks in catalyzing private capital investments.
● The role of development banks in fostering and incubating the capital market.
● The role of DFIs in implementing macroeconomic policies and fulfilling coordination between monetary policy and financial policy.
● Infrastructure financing in Belt and Road countries.
● The environmental and social safeguards policy applicable to countries at different stages of development.
● Economic structure transformation and debt sustainability.
● The appropriate financial regulatory framework for national development banks.
Application Procedure:
Submit the following in English to nseadmin@nsd.pku.edu.cn (The title of the email should follow the format of Research Specialist_Name_graduate school_ Major_The Earliest Availability Date)
● CV
● One-page statement of interest
● Representative publication/research reports/case studies
● Two letters of reference (or two recommenders' contact information)
● Scans of the diplomas (or studying certificate)
● Other evidence of research excellence (e.g., experience in manual data collection or accounting standards application; experience in data collection through Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing)
Application Deadline:
July 31, 2021
We are currently running the recruitment on a rolling basis and encourage interested applicants to submit an application as soon as possible.