USP study details the impacts of the maritime economy in Brazil

Activities linked to the sea represent up to 6.39% of GDP and 4.45% of employment in the country

A study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) revealed the structure of the so-called "blue economy" in Brazil—the set of economic activities that directly depend on marine resources. Based on an interregional input-output model, the authors mapped the direct and indirect impacts of these activities, highlighting both the economic importance of the coast and its deep connection with the country's interior.

The research was conducted by Eduardo Haddad, a full professor in the Department of Economics at the School of Economics, Business Administration, Accounting and Actuarial Science (FEA-USP), and Inácio Araújo, a postdoctoral researcher in the same department. An article on the subject was published in the journal Ocean Sustainability.

"Our innovation was the measurement of the so-called ocean economy, highlighting the geographic dimension and the interconnectedness of the productive structure. This generated knowledge that can serve as a basis for other models," says Haddad.

According to the study, in 2019, activities directly linked to the blue economy accounted for 2.91% of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 1.07% of national employment. Within this Blue GDP, the most significant sector by far was oil and natural gas extraction (60.4%), followed by public administration and defense (7.4%), and storage and transportation (7.3%). "In terms of value, the bulk is offshore oil, which contributes over 60% of Brazil's Blue GDP. The remaining nearly 40% is distributed across clusters such as defense, coastal tourism, maritime transportation, and fishing," explains the researcher.

Connection to non-coastal areas

One of the main results of the study was to demonstrate the interconnection of the maritime economy with economic chains in non-coastal areas. When the indirect effects of the linkage with other sectors are considered, the impact of the blue economy rises to 6.39% of GDP and 4.45% of employment. "It's as if I pulled a plant from the ground and brought along the entire root, which had spread far and wide. When we abstract an activity linked to the sea, such as fishing, from the overall economy, it affects the entire value chain, both backward and forward. I often joke that it's through this economic interconnection that the sea reaches Minas Gerais," explains Haddad.

Although Brazil's blue economy is heavily concentrated in the Southeast region, with Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Espírito Santo accounting for 82% of direct production, the study reveals a diversity of regional specializations. "What we observed are several regional nuances in coastal economies, and this has important implications for the design of sustainable development policies," argues Haddad. "Hence the title of our study: Shades of Blue."

While the Southeast and part of the South excel in oil extraction and maritime transportation, the Northeast shows greater specialization in coastal tourism and artisanal fishing. According to the researcher, "the maritime economy is important in different ways, depending on the region. In Rio de Janeiro, it's oil; in Ceará, it's tourism and fishing."

The study also ranks the 50 municipalities with the greatest participation in the maritime economy, which account for 90% of national activity. "Of the 280 coastal municipalities, most of the most significant are in the state of Rio de Janeiro, largely due to oil exploration," Haddad notes.

For the study's authors, Brazil needs to overcome the fragmentation of its maritime policies. Despite having a National Policy for Marine Resources and a National Maritime Policy, there is still no effective coordination to transform ocean resources into sustainable development.

"What we did was adopt an integrated approach, which measures not only the direct impact of maritime-related activities, but also interactions with other economic activities, both coastal and inland," Haddad emphasizes. "The rationale is to allow regional public policies to be better calibrated to the realities of each territory."

The methodology developed in the study has already begun to be applied in places whose economies depend heavily on the sea, such as Madeira Island, the Azores, and Peru. "Our aim is to contribute to the formulation of fairer, more territorially sensitive, and more effective environmental and economic decisions," concludes Haddad.

The study was supported by FAPESP through a grant to the INCT project for Climate Change (14/50848-9) and the postdoctoral fellowship “Evaluation of impacts of extreme events: an integrated approach of computable general equilibrium and risk analysis” (21/12397-9).