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Using Nighttime Light Inequality to Understand Economic Inequality in India

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Kuruvilla Mathen

    (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

  • Siddhartha Chattopadhyay

    (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

Abstract

Consistent data on economic inequality are unavailable over time at the subnational level in India. Existing studies have demonstrated that rising spatial inequality can lead to rising economic inequality. Since nighttime light inequality is a form of spatial inequality, we examine whether nighttime light inequality can be used as a proxy of economic inequality at the subnational level in India. We compute nighttime light inequality for 93 homogenous regions and 25 states in India for each year from 2014 to 2021 exploiting the granular availability of VIIRS nighttime light data. Corresponding economic inequality is proxied using survey-based consumption inequality. Further, we examine the incidence of crime across cities in India using nighttime light inequality as a proxy of economic inequality at the city level. Using pooled OLS estimation, random effects, and time fixed-effect estimation we find a positive association between nighttime light inequality and consumption inequality. Similarly, in line with the existing literature, we also find that a positive relationship exists between incidence of crime and nighttime light inequality across cities in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Kuruvilla Mathen & Siddhartha Chattopadhyay, 2024. "Using Nighttime Light Inequality to Understand Economic Inequality in India," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-981-97-9218-4_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-981-97-9218-4_7
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic inequality; Consumption inequality; Nighttime light inequality; VIIRS; Crime;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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