Jean Lee

Senior Economist @The World Bank Group

Washington, DC, US

I am a part of the Office of the Chief Economist for the Africa Region. In this capacity, I am starting new work on jobs, firms and the private sector, including the influence of institutions, infrastructure, finance and digital technologies. I am also supporting a regional initiative on electrification for which I authored an influential options paper on electricity reliability for my office at the World Bank. I also co-authored an options paper on covering financing gaps for HIV/AIDS treatment with the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population David Wilson.Until January 2024, I was a part of the Office of the Chief Economist for the South Asia Region. In this role, I worked on a range of development issues, including digital development, informality and gender. I supported the production of the office’s twice annual economic update, leading two topical chapters for the Spring 2021 and Fall 2022 issues. I also served as co-lead Sherpa to the international community for the World Bank on vaccine finance for COVID-19, and wrote the original options paper for COVID vaccine finance with former Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population Muhammad Pate and developed the original costing for the World Bank’s $20+ billion funding envelope for COVID vaccines with current Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population David Wilson. I collaborated with the South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab and served as co-Task Team Lead for one of our office\'s two new flagship work programs on disparities. My portfolio included experimental work, non-experimental work and policy work.Countries and regions: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, SAR region, Africa West, Africa East and Southern

Harvard University

Bachelor of Arts (AB)

Harvard University

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Harvard University

Master's degree (AM)