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Viñuela, Lorena

Global Practice on Governance, The World Bank
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Fields of Specialization
Public policy reform, Comparative politics, Intergovernmental fiscal relations, Public finance, Public sector management
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Global Practice on Governance, The World Bank
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Last updated: January 31, 2023
Biography
Lorena Viñuela is a Public Sector Specialist with the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Region.  Her research relates to the political economy of public policy reform, fiscal policy, intergovernmental relations, and comparative politics. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs of Syracuse University, the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-method Research, and the Inter-American Development Bank.   She is the co-author of the book "Rents to Riches: Political Economy of Natural Resource-Led Development," and numerous articles and book chapters related to decentralization, political economy, and public finance.

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Publication
    Do Performance Agreements Help Improve Service Delivery?: The Experience of Brazilian States
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07) Vinuela, Lorena
    A growing number of states and municipalities in Brazil rely on results-based management, and many other local and state governments are considering adopting the practice. This paper examines the experiences of the Brazilian states that have implemented results agreements linked to variable pay. The analysis compares current with pre-intervention outcomes in the education, health, and security sectors. The changes are examined in relation to regional trends to determine whether the improvements depart in meaningful ways from the overall trend. In addition, a truncated time-series cross-section model is used to control for several additional factors influencing service delivery outcomes. The results suggest that, at least in the short and medium term, the implementation of results agreements is associated with significant and positive changes in outcomes in the security and education sectors. On average, states using team-level targets and performance-related pay have 15 fewer homicides per 100,000 inhabitants than those that do not, all else equal. Similarly, states that have introduced performance agreements and a bonus for teachers and school staff have improved their Basic Education Development Index score for public secondary schools by 0.3 additional points compared with the scores of states with similar characteristics. The conclusions are in line with the findings of in-depth impact evaluations and case study work in the education and security sectors (Bruns, Evans and Luque 2011, Milagres de Assis 2012). The paper does not analyze unit or team level data, which would be necessary to draw more rigorous conclusions about how results-based interventions affect the behavior of civil servants and outcomes over time. Therefore, the results should be interpreted with caution, as some of the assumptions behind the models cannot be examined with the available data.
  • Publication
    Rents to Riches? The Political Economy of Natural Resource-led Development
    (World Bank, 2012) Barma, Naazneen H.; Kaiser, Kai; Le, Tuan Minh; Vinuela, Lorena
    This volume emphasizes instead the notion of 'good fit,' taking the position that welfare-promoting policies, institutions, and governance must be tailored, at least in part, to a country's specific context. In this vein, the volume presents an analytical framework for assessing a country's political economy and institutional environment as it relates to natural resource management and, on that basis, it offers a substantial set of targeted prescriptions across the natural resource value chain that are technically sound and compatible with the identified underlying incentives. In other words, the objective of this book is to help development practitioners unravel the political economy dynamics surrounding natural resource management in order to complement their technically grounded engagement. To this end, the analytical approach has been two-pronged. First, case studies were conducted on the political economy of the hydrocarbon and mineral value chains in 13 countries in the Africa, East Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Second, in light of this empirical material, the book highlights the current frontier of applied political economy analysis on resource dependence. This volume synthesizes the empirical and the theoretical with an emphasis on illuminating the implications for operational engagement in resource-dependent settings.
  • Publication
    Intergovernmental Fiscal Management in Natural Resource-Rich Settings
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Vinuela, Lorena; Kaiser, Kai
    In resource-dependent countries, natural resources constitute one of the main assets available for financing local governments because the economy is not greatly diversified. The goal of this note is to highlight different critical dimensions of intergovernmental fiscal relations in these settings, present a survey of the range of arrangements used for managing resource rents across multiple levels of government, and synthesize basic principles or considerations in the implementation of revenue-sharing systems across different contexts. The design and implementation of measures to improve intergovernmental management of the oil, gas, and mining sector must consider the core policy objectives, fiscal context, and overall political structure. Paying attention to the constraints and political economy drivers that shape intergovernmental relations is critical to identify the feasible reforms and alternatives to improve performance that are available in a given country.