Economic Research Intern

Economic Research Intern at Inter-American Development Bank

This is a 2-months paid internship located at our Headquarters in Washington D.C. We offer visa sponsorship for eligible candidates. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group is a vibrant community of diverse, versatile, and passionate individuals dedicated to improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our team members find purpose and thrive in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.

About This Position

The IDB Group is seeking an active graduate student for an Economic Research Intern position under the Consultant modality. The 2026 Summer Internship Program offers a competitive paid opportunity, based in Headquarters, for university students from member countries. This program allows interns to gain exposure to the Bank's development work and corporate management, acquiring professional work experience through practical, on-the-job learning.

You will be a part of the Economics Team within the Country Department Caribbean Group (CCB). This department leads the IDB Group's engagement with its Caribbean member countries, guiding policy dialogue and overseeing the preparation, execution, and monitoring of country and regional strategies. It manages the design, processing, negotiation, and administration of both public-sector and private-sector operations, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and country-specific development objectives.

About the Research Projects

This role involves contributing to significant research initiatives. One project focuses on estimating country-specific models to forecast quarterly economic growth in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname with high accuracy. This will leverage state-of-the-art Nowcasting models developed with Machine Learning technologies, exploiting real-time data variations. Another project uses large language models to analyze the uptake of reforms following loans and other interventions.

What You’ll Do

• With guidance from the CCB Economics Team, assist in automating the data extraction of key macroeconomic indicators in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname. This also includes processing non-structured data to identify key economic activity indicators based on remote sensing and Internet search data.
• Clean and prepare data for Nowcasting analysis of GDP across the six Caribbean countries. All data will be collected, cleaned, and organized into a dataset, ready for Nowcasting models.
• Support project supervisors in training IDB staff and/or government staff on the applications and use of nowcasting tools. These training workshops will involve an online overview of the applications and the code used for data extraction and automation.
• Work on a research study examining the impact of reform processes in Caribbean countries, which includes running Large Language Models (LLM). This entails helping to train the LLMs, assess algorithms, and identify data sources (particularly newspapers, complementing Factiva with web-scrapable repositories).
• Review datasets, reports, and narratives generated by AI, conducting comparison exercises. The intern will also be expected to combine the mining and cleaning of structured data from public entities with semi-structured or non-structured data.

What You'll Need

• Education: An active graduate student enrolled in Economics, economic policy, data science, or similar fields from an accredited University. Your graduation date must be after the Internship period (August 15, 2026). For graduate students, a minimum of 50% of coursework must be completed when applying.
• Languages: Fluency in English is required, with a working knowledge of one other Bank language (Spanish, French, or Portuguese) being a significant plus.
• Key Skills: A continuous learning mindset, strong collaboration and knowledge-sharing abilities, a client-focused approach, effective communication and influencing skills, and an innovative mindset open to trying new things.
• Technical Skills: Knowledge of large language models and AI tools, Python, and R is essential. Experience working with unstructured data and Nowcasting is preferred but not strictly necessary.

Requirements

• Citizenship: Be a national of an IDB member country.
• Active Student: Must be enrolled in a graduate (master’s or Ph.D.) program as of the internship start date (June 16, 2026). The graduation date should be after August 15, 2026.
• Consanguinity: Must not have family members (up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, including spouse) working at the IDB or IDB Invest.
• First Job at the IDB Group: Be a first-time participant in an Internship Program held by the Bank or Inter-American Investment Corporation (“Corporation” also known as “IDB Invest”). Additionally, you must not have been a former staff member, Complementary Workforce (“CW”), contractor for the Bank or the Corporation, or previously provided services through a contractor or any other contractual modality.

Notes

When applying, please submit your resume, academic transcripts (official or unofficial), and a university letter certifying your student status. If you submit an unofficial academic transcript, an official one will be requested if you move forward in the process. Academic transcripts and university letters must be issued within the last three months.

Please save each file in PDF format with your name and subject. Do NOT send copies of your degree certificates or other course certifications.

You must be available to work full-time (40 hours per week) from June 16 to August 15, 2026. These dates are fixed and cannot be modified, and interns must complete their assignments within this period.

If you are an international student in the U.S.A., your work authorization is through CPT or OPT. Consult your school advisor before applying, as many international students are limited to working part-time, depending on their academic standing, while this role requires 40 hours per week.

Type of Contract and Duration

Type of contract: Intern Consultant

Length of contract: Two (2) months

Dates of the contract: June 16th to August 15th, 2026

Location: Washington, D.C. – United States of America

Our Culture

At the IDB, we cultivate an environment where everyone can bring their best and authentic selves to work, finding purpose in their contributions. Our people consistently strive for excellence, and we celebrate the impact they make. We intentionally include all voices, foster a sense of belonging, and champion fairness to drive innovation. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us and share their unique perspectives.

We provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities to participate in the job interview process. If you require an accommodation to complete this application, please email us at accommodations@iadb.org.

Key skills/competency

• Economics
• Data Science
• Machine Learning
• Python
• R
• Nowcasting
• Large Language Models
• Data Extraction
• Economic Policy
• Caribbean Studies