IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anf/wpaper/21.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring economic activity from outer space: A Python notebook for processing and analyzing satellite nighttime lights

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Mendez

    (Nagoya University)

  • Ayush Patnaik

    (xKDR Forum)

Abstract

Nighttime lights (NTL) data are widely recognized as a useful proxy for monitoring national, subnational, and supranational economic activity. These data offer advantages over traditional economic indicators such as GDP, including greater spatial granularity, timeliness, lower cost, and comparability between regions regardless of statistical capacity or political interference. However, despite these benefits, the use of NTL data in regional science has been limited. This is in part due to the lack of accessible methods for processing and analyzing satellite images. To address this issue, this paper presents a user-friendly geocomputational notebook that illustrates how to process and analyze satellite NTL images. First, the notebook introduces a cloud-based Python environment for visualizing, analyzing, and transforming raster satellite images into tabular data. Next, it presents interactive tools to explore the space-time patterns of the tabulated data. Finally, it describes methods for evaluating the usefulness of NTL data in terms of their cross-sectional predictions, time-series predictions, and regional inequality dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Mendez & Ayush Patnaik, 2023. "Exploring economic activity from outer space: A Python notebook for processing and analyzing satellite nighttime lights," Working Papers 21, xKDR.
    • Handle: RePEc:anf:wpaper:21
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.18335/region.v11i1.493
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.xkdr.org/papers/2023_MendezPatnaik_IndiaNTLimagesProcessingandExploration.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2023
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/https://doi.org/10.18335/region.v11i1.493?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 994-1028, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cruzatti C., John & Bjørnskov, Christian & Sáenz de Viteri, Andrea & Cruzatti, Christian, 2024. "Geography, development, and power: Parliament leaders and local clientelism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Seiffert, Sebastian, 2015. "The Role of Economic Geography in Subnational African Development," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113186, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Paul J. Burke & Andrew Leigh, 2010. "Do Output Contractions Trigger Democratic Change?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 124-157, October.
    4. Patrick Lehnert & Michael Niederberger & Uschi Backes-Gellner & Eric Bettinger, 2020. "Proxying Economic Activity with Daytime Satellite Imagery: Filling Data Gaps Across Time and Space," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0165, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Sep 2022.
    5. Sugat Chaturvedi & Sabyasachi Das, 2018. "Group Size and Political Representation Under Alternate Electoral Systems," Working Papers 04, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    6. Kai Gehring & Sarah Langlotz & Stefan Kienberger, 2018. "Stimulant or depressant? Resource-related income shocks and conflict," HiCN Working Papers 286, Households in Conflict Network, revised Apr 2020.
    7. Bertinelli, Luisito & Mohan, Preeya & Strobl, Eric, 2016. "Hurricane damage risk assessment in the Caribbean: An analysis using synthetic hurricane events and nightlight imagery," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 135-144.
    8. Carlos Mendez & Felipe Santos‐Marquez, 2021. "Regional convergence and spatial dependence across subnational regions of ASEAN: Evidence from satellite nighttime light data," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(6), pages 1750-1777, December.
    9. Corral, Leonardo R. & Schling, Maja, 2017. "The impact of shoreline stabilization on economic growth in small island developing states," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 210-228.
    10. Iván Higuera-Mendieta, 2016. "Persistencias históricas y discontinuidades espaciales: territorios comunitarios en el Pacífico colombiano," Documentos de trabajo sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 239, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Keola, Souknilanh & Silaphet, Korrakoun & Yamanouchi, Kenta, 2022. "Estimating the impacts of international bridges on foreign firm locations: a machine learning approach," IDE Discussion Papers 847, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    12. Ishak, Phoebe W., 2021. "Murder nature weather and violent crime in Brazil," Discussion Papers 2021/2, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    13. Zhonghua Cheng & Xiaowen Hu, 2023. "The effects of urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1792-1808, February.
    14. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian & Galdo, Virgilio, 2021. "Examining the economic impact of COVID-19 in India through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Boslett, Andrew & Hill, Elaine & Ma, Lala & Zhang, Lujia, 2021. "Rural light pollution from shale gas development and associated sleep and subjective well-being," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Böhme, Marcus H. & Persian, Ruth & Stöhr, Tobias, 2015. "Alone but better off? Adult child migration and health of elderly parents in Moldova," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 211-227.
    17. Han, Yi & Wu, Mingqin, 2024. "Inter-regional barriers and economic growth: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    18. Yang-Ho Park, 2019. "Information in Yield Spread Trades," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-025, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. Yu Kun Wang & Li Zhang, 2022. "Tax Revenue, Night Lights and Underground Economy: Evidence from China," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 8(2), pages 186-198.
    20. Sumit Agarwal & Thomas Kigabo & Ms. Camelia Minoiu & Mr. Andrea F Presbitero & Andre Silva, 2018. "Financial Access Under the Microscope," IMF Working Papers 2018/208, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Y9 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:anf:wpaper:21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ami Dagli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.papers.xkdr.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.