Economic Research Intern Using Data Tools Caribbean

Position: Economic Research Intern Using New Data Tools in the Caribbean
Location: Washington

IDB- 2026 Summer Internship Program

Graduate Intern

We improve lives

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 IDB Group is looking for an active graduate student to be hired as an intern under the Consultant modality.

The 2026 Summer Internship Program is a competitive paid opportunity, based in Headquarters, for university students from member countries to learn about development work and corporate management of the Bank, and to acquire work experience at the professional level through on-the-job learning.

You will work in Economics Team part Country Department Caribbean Group. The Department leads the IDB Group engagement with its Caribbean member countries, directing policy dialogue and the preparation, execution, and monitoring of country and regional strategies. It oversees 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 project aims at estimating country-specific models that, based on technologies using high frequency data available in real time or quasi-real time, forecast quarterly economic growth in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname with high accuracy. The study will leverage state-of-the-art Nowcasting models developed with Machine Learning technologies in order to exploit variation from real-time data in forecasting economic activity.

Another research project uses large language models to look at the uptake of reforms following loans and other interventions.

What you'll do

With inputs from the Country Department Caribbean Group (CCB) Economics Team, assist in the data extraction automation of key macroeconomic indicators in Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, and process non-structured data in the same countries. This task aims to identify key indicators of economic activity based on remote sensing and Internet search data.

* Clean and prepare data for Nowcasting analysis of GDP in the above-mentioned six Caribbean countries. All data will be collected and cleaned into a dataset, which will be prepared for Nowcasting models.

* Support project supervisors in training IDB staff and/or government staff on the applications and use of now casting tools. The training workshops will consist of an online overview of the applications and the code used to extract and automate data extraction.

In addition, you will be expected to work on a research study on the impact of reform processes in Caribbean countries, which includes running Large Language Models (LLM). This would require helping to train the LLMs and assess algorithms, and finding sources of data (particularly regarding newspapers, because we will try to complement Factiva with web-scrapable repositories)

Review results (datasets, reports, narratives) generated by the AI, and conduct comparison exercises. The intern will also be expected to combine the mining and cleaning of structured data published by public entities, and semi-structured or non-structured data.

What you'll need

* Education:

An active graduate student in Economics, economic policy, data science or similar fields from an accredited University. The graduation date should be after the Internship period.

* Languages:

Fluency in English with a working knowledge of one other Bank language (Spanish, French, or Portuguese) is a plus.

* Key

Skills:

learn continuously, collaborate and share knowledge, focus on clients, communicate and influence, innovate and try new things

* Technical skills:
Knowledge of large language models and AI tools, Python, and R. Experience working with unstructured data and Nowcasting would be preferred but not necessary.

Requirements

* Citizenship:
Be a national of an IDB member country.

* Active student: enrolled in a graduate (master's or Ph.D.) program as of the starting date of the internship program. The graduation date should be after the Internship period.

* Consanguinity:
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"). In addition, you have not been a former staff member, Complementary Workforce ("CW"), contractor for the Bank or the Corporation, or have previously provided services to the Bank or the Corporation through a contractor or under any other contractual modality.

Notes:

* Submit your resume, academic transcripts (official or unofficial), and university letter certifying your student status when applying.

* If you submit an…