Efetividade de uma ação governamental voltada à segurança alimentar no Estado da Paraíba: o caso do Programa Tá na Mesa

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of the government action called Tá na Mesa, instituted by the Government of the State of Paraíba during the Covid-19 pandemic, on the indicator of low birth weight among live births to mothers residing in the benefited locations. Given the varying scale of program implementation (from 34 to 149 municipalities throughout the analysis period), the methodology employed is a difference-in-differences model with multiple time periods, utilizing a municipal-level panel dataset with 1,338 observations from June 2019 to August 2024. The results show that the Tá na Mesa Program did not have a statistically significant impact on the prevalence of low birth weight in the municipalities benefited by the intervention. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of the policy may be related to factors that deserve further investigation and adjustments in its design and implementation, especially to strengthen actions to combat food insecurity in the State of Paraíba.