IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1303.2901.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Dynamics and Spatial Distribution of Global Nighttime Lights

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Pestalozzi
  • Peter Cauwels
  • Didier Sornette

Abstract

Using open source data, we observe the fascinating dynamics of nighttime light. Following a global economic regime shift, the planetary center of light can be seen moving eastwards at a pace of about 60 km per year. Introducing spatial light Gini coefficients, we find a universal pattern of human settlements across different countries and see a global centralization of light. Observing 160 different countries we document the expansion of developing countries, the growth of new agglomerations, the regression in countries suffering from demographic decline and the success of light pollution abatement programs in western countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Pestalozzi & Peter Cauwels & Didier Sornette, 2013. "Dynamics and Spatial Distribution of Global Nighttime Lights," Papers 1303.2901, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1303.2901
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1303.2901
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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.
    2. Zhao, Naizhuo & Currit, Nate & Samson, Eric, 2011. "Net primary production and gross domestic product in China derived from satellite imagery," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 921-928, March.
    3. John Agnew & Thomas W Gillespie & Jorge Gonzalez & Brian Min, 2008. "Baghdad Nights: Evaluating the US Military ‘Surge’ Using Nighttime Light Signatures," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(10), pages 2285-2295, October.
    4. Doll, Christopher N.H. & Muller, Jan-Peter & Morley, Jeremy G., 2006. "Mapping regional economic activity from night-time light satellite imagery," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 75-92, April.
    5. Nils B. Weidmann & Doreen Kuse & Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, 2010. "The Geography of the International System: The CShapes Dataset," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 86-106, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guhuai Han & Tao Zhou & Yuanheng Sun & Shoujie Zhu, 2022. "The relationship between night-time light and socioeconomic factors in China and India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, January.
    2. Tilottama Ghosh & Sharolyn J. Anderson & Christopher D. Elvidge & Paul C. Sutton, 2013. "Using Nighttime Satellite Imagery as a Proxy Measure of Human Well-Being," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(12), pages 1-32, November.

    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. 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.
    2. Natalya Rybnikova & Boris Portnov, 2015. "Using light-at-night (LAN) satellite data for identifying clusters of economic activities in Europe," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 307-334, November.
    3. Qian Chen & Tingting Ye & Naizhuo Zhao & Mingjun Ding & Zutao Ouyang & Peng Jia & Wenze Yue & Xuchao Yang, 2021. "Mapping China’s regional economic activity by integrating points-of-interest and remote sensing data with random forest," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(7), pages 1876-1894, September.
    4. Leonardo Corral & Maja Schling & Cassandra Rogers & Janice Cumberbatch & Fabian Hinds & Naijun Zhou & Michele H. Lemay, 2016. "The Impact of Coastal Infrastructure Improvements on Economic Growth: Evidence from Barbados," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 95978, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. E. Ustaoglu & R. Bovkır & A. C. Aydınoglu, 2021. "Spatial distribution of GDP based on integrated NPS-VIIRS nighttime light and MODIS EVI data: a case study of Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10309-10343, July.
    6. Corral, Leonardo & Schling, Maja & Rogers, Cassandra & Cumberbatch, Janice & Hinds, Fabian & Zhou, Naijun & Lemay, Michele H., 2016. "The Impact of Coastal Infrastructure Improvements on Economic Growth: Evidence from Barbados," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7860, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. 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).
    8. Nicolene Hamman & Andrew Phiri, 2022. "Using Nighttime Luminosity as a Proxy for Economic Growth in Africa: Is It a Bright Idea?," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 20(2 (Summer), pages 139-165.
    9. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    10. De Luca, Giacomo & Hodler, Roland & Raschky, Paul A. & Valsecchi, Michele, 2018. "Ethnic favoritism: An axiom of politics?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 115-129.
    11. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Gröschl, Jasmin & Sanders, Mark & Schippers, Vincent & Steinwachs, Thomas, 2018. "Shedding Light on the Spatial Diffusion of Disasters," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181556, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía & Iván Higuera-Mendieta, 2017. "Political Alignment in the Time of Weak Parties: Electoral Advantages and Subnational Transfers in Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 15746, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    13. Brock, Gregory, 2015. "The informal economy of Rostov Oblast on the eve of the Ukrainian refugee crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 789-803.
    14. 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.
    15. Anna Bruederle & Roland Hodler, 2018. "Nighttime lights as a proxy for human development at the local level," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-22, September.
    16. Keyang Zhou & Yutian Liang & Chen Zhong & Jiaqi Zeng & Zhengke Zhou, 2022. "Spatial Features of Urban Expansion in Vietnam Based on Long-Term Nighttime Lights Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-12, April.
    17. Indaco, Agustín, 2020. "From twitter to GDP: Estimating economic activity from social media," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    18. Zhaoxin Dai & Yunfeng Hu & Guanhua Zhao, 2017. "The Suitability of Different Nighttime Light Data for GDP Estimation at Different Spatial Scales and Regional Levels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, February.
    19. Phoebe W. Ishak & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2020. "A resource-rich neighbor is a misfortune: The spatial distribution of the resource curse in Brazil," Working Papers CEB 20-001, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Papaioannou, Elias & Michalopoulos, Stelios, 2010. "Divide and Rule or the Rule of the Divided? Evidence from Africa," CEPR Discussion Papers 8088, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:1303.2901. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.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.