IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/16317.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Value of Luminosity Data as a Proxy for Economic Statistics

Author

Listed:
  • Xi Chen
  • William D. Nordhaus

Abstract

One of the pervasive issues in social and environmental research has been to improve the quality of socioeconomic data in developing countries. Because of the shortcoming of standard data sources, the present study examines luminosity (measures of nighttime lights) as a proxy for standard measures of output. The paper compares output and luminosity at the country levels and at the 1° x 1° grid-cell levels for the period 1992-2008. The results are that luminosity has very little value added for countries with high-quality statistical systems. However, it may be useful for countries with the lowest statistical grades, particularly for war-torn countries with no recent population or economic censuses. The results also indicate that luminosity has more value added for economic density estimates than for time-series growth rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Xi Chen & William D. Nordhaus, 2010. "The Value of Luminosity Data as a Proxy for Economic Statistics," NBER Working Papers 16317, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16317
    Note: EEE IO PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16317.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Kuznets, 1934. "National Income, 1929-1932," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn34-1, June.
    2. Johnson, Simon & Larson, William & Papageorgiou, Chris & Subramanian, Arvind, 2013. "Is newer better? Penn World Table Revisions and their impact on growth estimates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 255-274.
    3. Sutton, Paul C. & Costanza, Robert, 2002. "Global estimates of market and non-market values derived from nighttime satellite imagery, land cover, and ecosystem service valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 509-527, June.
    4. repec:pri:rpdevs:understanding_ppps_complete_with_abstract_14nov08.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Angus Deaton & Alan Heston, 2010. "Understanding PPPs and PPP-Based National Accounts," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 1-35, October.
    6. repec:pri:rpdevs:understanding_ppps_complete_with_abstract_14nov08 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Illuminating GDP
      by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets on 2018-09-17 11:25:28
    2. Luminosity as an indicator of economic activity
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-09-30 22:38:00
    3. Ritchie asks
      by Tim Worstall in Tim Worstall on 2010-10-01 14:47:40

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Maxim L. Pinkovskiy & Xavier X. Sala-i-Martin, 2014. "Lights, camera,...income! Estimating poverty using national accounts, survey means, and lights," Staff Reports 669, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Morten Jerven, 2014. "African Growth Miracle or Statistical Tragedy?: Interpreting Trends in the Data Over the Past Two Decades," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-114, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Liam Rose & Asha Shepard, 2022. "Examining persistent effects of extractive institutions in the United States," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 142-170, March.
    5. Everisto Mugocha & Haroon Bhorat, "undated". "Import tariff pass-through effect and the spatial distribution of domestic consumer goods prices: Zimbabwe (2009-2014)," Working Papers 879, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    6. Jerven, Morten, 2014. "African growth miracle or statistical tragedy? Interpreting trends in the data over the past two decades," WIDER Working Paper Series 114, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. 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.
    8. Armey, Laura E. & Hosman, Laura, 2016. "The centrality of electricity to ICT use in low-income countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 617-627.
    9. Hoang Ha Nguyen Thi & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2023. "Tax Haven Welfare and the Crackdown on Secrecy: Evidence from Night Light Emissions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10721, CESifo.
    10. Denis Cogneau & Yannick Dupraz, 2014. "Questionable Inference on the Power of Pre-Colonial Institutions in Africa," PSE Working Papers halshs-01018548, HAL.
    11. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Chaudhary, Latika & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2015. "Tertiary Education and Prosperity: Catholic Missionaries to Luminosity in India," IZA Discussion Papers 9441, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Michael Wurm & Hannes Taubenböck & Jan Goebel & Stefan Dech & Gert G. Wagner, 2010. "Menschen zählen aus dem All. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Satellitendaten zur Abschätzung der Bevölkerungsentwicklung und des Gebäudebestandes in deutschen Städten," RatSWD Working Papers 155, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    13. Lu, Heli & Liu, Guifang, 2014. "Spatial effects of carbon dioxide emissions from residential energy consumption: A county-level study using enhanced nocturnal lighting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 297-306.
    14. Rajendra Kulkarni & Kingsley Haynes & Roger Stough & James Riggle, 2011. "Light based growth indicator (LBGI): exploratory analysis of developing a proxy for local economic growth based on night lights," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 101-113, June.
    15. Nonso Obikili, 2015. "An Examination of Subnational Growth in Nigeria: 1999-2012," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(3), pages 335-356, September.
    16. Bros, Catherine & Couttenier, Mathieu, 2015. "Untouchability, homicides and water access," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 549-558.
    17. Dimico, Arcangelo, 2013. "Size Matters: The Effect of the Scramble for Africa on Informal Institutions and Development," MPRA Paper 54550, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Mar 2014.
    18. Arcangelo Dimico, 2017. "Size Matters: The Effect of the Size of Ethnic Groups on Development," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 291-318, June.
    19. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2015. "Lights, Camera,... Income! Estimating Poverty Using National Accounts, Survey Means and Lights," LIS Working papers 645, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, 2017. "Growth discontinuities at borders," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 145-192, June.
    21. Faiz Ur Rehman & Noman Ahmad & Muhammad Nasir, 2022. "Political Dynasties and Local Economic Development in Pakistan (Article)," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 415-443.
    22. Dou, Shiquan & Yue, Chen & Xu, Deyi & Wei, Yi & Li, Hang, 2022. "Rethinking the “resource curse”: New evidence from nighttime light data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    23. Indaco, Agustín, 2020. "From twitter to GDP: Estimating economic activity from social media," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    24. Li, Huixuan & Chen, Jing & Chen, Zihao & Xu, Jianguo, 2022. "Urban population distribution in China: Evidence from internet population," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    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. 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. Lionel Roger, 2018. "Blinded by the light? Heterogeneity in the luminosity-growth nexus and the African growth miracle," Discussion Papers 2018-04, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    3. 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.
    4. Kacprzyk, Andrzej & Kuchta, Zbigniew, 2020. "Shining a new light on the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Roger, Lionel, 2019. "A replication of "The long-run impact of foreign aid in 36 African countries: Insights from multivariate time series analysis" (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2014)," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-53.
    6. Keola, Souknilanh & Andersson, Magnus & Hall, Ola, 2015. "Monitoring Economic Development from Space: Using Nighttime Light and Land Cover Data to Measure Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 322-334.
    7. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    8. Mick Silver, 2010. "IMF Applications of Purchasing Power Parity Estimates," IMF Working Papers 2010/253, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Krittaya Sangkasem & Nattapong Puttanapong, 2022. "Analysis of spatial inequality using DMSP‐OLS nighttime‐light satellite imageries: A case study of Thailand," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(4), pages 828-849, August.
    10. Okeke, Edward N., 2013. "Brain drain: Do economic conditions “push” doctors out of developing countries?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 169-178.
    11. Oulton, Nicholas, 2015. "Understanding the space–time (in)consistency of the national accounts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 21-23.
    12. Sundar Ponnusamy & Mohammad Abbas Hakeem, 2024. "Ethnic inequality and public health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 41-58, January.
    13. 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.
    14. Appau, Samuelson & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2021. "The long-term impact of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    15. Deng, Kent & O'Brien, Patrick, 2017. "How Well Did Facts Travel to Support Protracted Debate on the History of the Great Divergence between Western Europe and Imperial China?," MPRA Paper 77290, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. 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.
    17. Angus Deaton & Bettina Aten, 2017. "Trying to Understand the PPPs in ICP 2011: Why Are the Results So Different?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 243-264, January.
    18. Christian Otchia & Simplice Asongu, 2020. "Industrial growth in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from machine learning with insights from nightlight satellite images," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 48(8), pages 1421-1441, December.
    19. Oulton, Nicholas, 2015. "Space-time (in)consistency in the national accounts:causes and cures," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62569, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Konno, Akio & Kato, Hironori & Takeuchi, Wataru & Kiguchi, Riku, 2021. "Global evidence on productivity effects of road infrastructure incorporating spatial spillover effects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 167-182.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy

    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:nbr:nberwo:16317. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.