IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/69733.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring the Spatial Economy by Night

Author

Listed:
  • Bergs, Rolf

Abstract

Nocturnal satellite images may offer an interesting tool to generate socio-economically relevant data and to analyse the evolution of space, e.g. cities or rural areas, and how spatial units interact over time. So far, the major purpose of using night satellite images for economic analysis has been the search for proxies for production and population density in countries with insufficient and unreliable data infrastructure. This essentially applies to less developed countries where weak data infrastructure is often part of overall underdeveloped administrative capacities. Error variance of light emission is constant over space and independent from error in official statistics. In industrialised countries official socio-economic data are deemed sufficiently reliable, a reason why night satellite analysis has been more of relevance for developing countries. However, this only holds for purposes to derive proxies for production or population data. In fact, there is also reason to use this tool in the observation of (spatial) economic patterns and trends in the more industrialised countries. Observation of spatial distribution of rural areas, urban agglomerations, border areas or other spatial categories are to be mentioned. More importantly, underlying patterns of spatial heterogeneity, such as Zipf’s law, and spatial dependence (change of spatial autocorrelation over time) can be made visible - without distortion implied by (changing) administrative boundaries. The images analysed in this paper are satellite images of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The time series of nocturnal satellite imagery and the application of adequate image analysis software, such as ImageJ (in some cases to be complemented by further statistics software), provide a useful perspective for the analysis of spatial change. This paper is an essay with preliminary ideas for discussion; the approach is explorative-methodological rather than one putting an empirical focus on a defined research item.

Suggested Citation

  • Bergs, Rolf, 2016. "Exploring the Spatial Economy by Night," MPRA Paper 69733, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:69733
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/69733/1/MPRA_paper_69733.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Testing for Localization Using Micro-Geographic Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1077-1106.
    2. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2014. "Lights, Camera,... Income!: Estimating Poverty Using National Accounts, Survey Means, and Lights," NBER Working Papers 19831, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ramajo, Julián & Márquez, Miguel A. & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D. & Salinas, María M., 2008. "Spatial heterogeneity and interregional spillovers in the European Union: Do cohesion policies encourage convergence across regions?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 551-567, April.
    4. Charlotta Mellander & José Lobo & Kevin Stolarick & Zara Matheson, 2015. "Night-Time Light Data: A Good Proxy Measure for Economic Activity?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2011. "A Bright Idea for Measuring Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 194-199, May.
    6. 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.
    7. Zwiers, Merle & Bolt, Gideon & van Ham, Maarten & van Kempen, Ronald, 2014. "Neighborhood Decline and the Economic Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 8749, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. Shapiro, Daniel & Oh, Chang Hoon & Zhang, Peng, 2023. "Nighttime lights data and their implications for IB research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    2. Basihos, Seda, 2016. "Nightlights as a Development Indicator: The Estimation of Gross Provincial Product (GPP) in Turkey," MPRA Paper 75553, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Sep 2016.
    3. Boone, Catherine & Simson, Rebecca, 2019. "Regional inequalities in African political economy: theory, conceptualization and measurement, and political effects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100861, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. 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).
    5. Tingting Xie & Yong Wang & Ye Yuan, 2024. "Health Benefits from Improved Air Quality: Evidence from Pollution Regulations in China’s “ $$2{+}26$$ 2 + 26 ” Cities," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(5), pages 1175-1221, May.
    6. Buhl-Wiggers, Julie & Jones, Sam & Thornton, Rebecca, 2021. "Boys lagging behind: Unpacking gender differences in academic achievement across East Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Bluhm, Richard & Krause, Melanie, 2022. "Top lights: Bright cities and their contribution to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Juan M. Villa, 2014. "Social Transfers and Growth: The Missing Evidence from Luminosity Data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-090, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. 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.
    11. Rolf Bergs & Rüdiger Budde, 2022. "The potential of small-scale spatial data in regional science," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(2), pages 97-110, August.
    12. Boone, Catherine & Simson, Rebecca, 2019. "Regional inequalities in African political economy: theory, conceptualization and measurement, and political effects," Economic History Working Papers 100861, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    13. Villa, Juan M., 2014. "Social transfers and growth: The missing evidence from luminosity data," WIDER Working Paper Series 090, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Meng, Lina & Graus, Wina & Worrell, Ernst & Huang, Bo, 2014. "Estimating CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions at urban scales by DMSP/OLS (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System) nighttime light imagery: Methodological challenges and a ," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 468-478.
    15. Rolf Bergs, 2018. "The detection of natural cities in the Netherlands—Nocturnal satellite imagery and Zipf’s law [Die Abgrenzung natürlicher Städte in den Niederlanden: Nachtsatellitenbilder und das Zipf-Gesetz]," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(2), pages 111-140, October.
    16. Xie, Tingting & Yuan, Ye, 2023. "Go with the wind: Spatial impacts of environmental regulations on economic activities in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    17. Sandy Fréret & Denis Maguain, 2017. "The effects of agglomeration on tax competition: evidence from a two-regime spatial panel model on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 1100-1140, December.
    18. Isabelle M. Nilsson & Oleg A. Smirnov, 2017. "Clustering vs. relative location: Measuring spatial interaction between retail outlets," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(4), pages 721-741, November.
    19. de Bellefon, Marie-Pierre & Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles & Gobillon, Laurent & Gorin, Clément, 2021. "Delineating urban areas using building density," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    20. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nocturnal satellite images; Image analysis; Spatial economy; Spatial dependence and heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    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:pra:mprapa:69733. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.