Elena Ianchovichina

Elena Ianchovichina is Head of Frontier Knowledge and Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Jobs and Growth Unit. She has held senior roles across the World Bank, including Deputy Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, Lead and Acting Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa, and Senior Economist in the Economic Policy and Debt Department. Credited with integrating growth and distribution in a single framework for inclusive growth (2008), she researches and advises on growth, jobs, structural transformation, spatial development, inequality, well-being, trade policy, political risk, and social cohesion. She has published 120+ works, many in leading journals, and was named a 2022 Distinguished Woman Scholar by Purdue University, where she earned her PhD (1998).

At the World Bank, Dr. Ianchovichina has led major initiatives, including the G20 engagement on jobs; the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Studies Program; the Inclusive Growth Program and Multi-Donor Trust Fund; and large analytical programs on spatial development in Latin America and the Caribbean and shared prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has informed regional and country growth strategies and reforms, including trade liberalization reforms in China and Vietnam. She was a research fellow at the Center for Global Trade Analysis (2002–2013) and is a guest editor of a forthcoming special issue of Food Policy on jobs and the agrifood system.