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Measuring the impact of fish farming on regional development of poor cities: A case study on Ceará State, Brazil

ABSTRACT Aquaculture has developed widely in Brazil, and it is considered an alternative for employment and income generation in rural areas. This article intends to evaluate effects of aquaculture on the improvement of the regional development indicators from the case study of tilapia production in Castanhão reservoir, Ceará State. Data of per capita income and HDI (Human Development Index) were compared in tilapia-producing municipalities (treatment) and not-producing municipalities (control) before and after the beginning of production. Variables such as Gini index were inserted to control the effect of municipal income inequality and distance from the Castanhão reservoir, which interfere in the probability of the municipality being a tilapia producer. Due to the heterogeneity of the municipalities and because the sample was not random, regression was carried out by matching municipalities according to their characteristics using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). The results indicate that tilapia production did not present a statistically significant impact on per capita income. On the other hand, the effect on the HDI was 0.9 percentage point, which shows that there was an improvement in health and education. The result indicates that aquaculture can be important in the development for poor regions in Brazil.