Socio-economic impacts of a maritime industrial development area (MIDA) model in Latin America: the case of the Açu Port-Industrial Complex

Maritime industrial development areas (MIDAs) have been designed as important models to promote regional industrialization and accelerate its economic growth. The Port-Industrial Complex (PIC) of Açu is considered the most audacious and great initiative in South America. Its chosen location was a rural and barely populated municipality in the Southeastern Brazil, where farming population was subjected to land expropriation for the creation of an industrial district. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate direct impacts of PIC installation and operation on the life quality of human population. For that, demographic (population size, live births) and economic indicators (royalties, gross domestic product, gross domestic product per capita) were compiled between 2000 and 2020 and statistically analyzed for temporal changes. Significant positive trends were found for all the five socioeconomic indicators, but annual variations were overall more pronounced for economic than demographic indicators. Installation and operation of Açu PIC brought undeniable local positive impacts and caused significant increases in population size, royalties, and gross domestic products. However, the rates of changes varied in scale and time for each indicator, reflecting additive interferences of local, regional, and even global events and governmental policies over the socioeconomic status of the human population affected by MIDA project. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13437-021-00261-z.