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Which Night Lights Data Should we Use in Economics, and Where?

Author

Listed:
  • Gibson, John
  • Olivia, Susan
  • Boe-Gibson, Geua
Abstract
Popular DMSP night lights data are flawed by blurring, top-coding, and lack of calibration. Yet newer and better VIIRS data are rarely used in economics. We compare these two data sources for predicting Indonesian GDP at the second sub-national level. DMSP data are a bad proxy for GDP outside of cities. The city lights-GDP relationship is twice as noisy using DMSP as using VIIRS. Spatial inequality is considerably understated with DMSP data. A Pareto adjustment to correct for top-coding in DMSP data has a modest effect but still understates spatial inequality and misses key features of economic activity in Jakarta.

Suggested Citation

  • Gibson, John & Olivia, Susan & Boe-Gibson, Geua, 2019. "Which Night Lights Data Should we Use in Economics, and Where?," MPRA Paper 97582, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:97582
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    2. Bluhm, Richard & Krause, Melanie, 2022. "Top lights: Bright cities and their contribution to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. John Gibson, 2021. "Better Night Lights Data, For Longer," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 770-791, June.
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    7. Adriana Kocornik-Mina & Thomas K. J. McDermott & Guy Michaels & Ferdinand Rauch, 2020. "Flooded Cities," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 35-66, April.
    8. John Gibson & David McKenzie, 2014. "The Development Impact of a Best Practice Seasonal Worker Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(2), pages 229-243, May.
    9. 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.
    10. Lessmann, Christian & Seidel, André, 2017. "Regional inequality, convergence, and its determinants – A view from outer space," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 110-132.
    11. Ran Goldblatt & Kilian Heilmann & Yonatan Vaizman, 0. "Can Medium-Resolution Satellite Imagery Measure Economic Activity at Small Geographies? Evidence from Landsat in Vietnam," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(3), pages 635-653.
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    13. Gibson, John & Datt, Gaurav & Murgai, Rinku & Ravallion, Martin, 2017. "For India’s Rural Poor, Growing Towns Matter More Than Growing Cities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 413-429.
    14. Goldblatt,Ran Philip & Heilmann,Kilian Tobias & Vaizman,Yonatan, 2019. "Can Medium-Resolution Satellite Imagery Measure Economic Activity at Small Geographies ? Evidence from Landsat in Vietnam," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9088, The World Bank.
    15. Lee, Yong Suk, 2018. "International isolation and regional inequality: Evidence from sanctions on North Korea," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 34-51.
    16. William Nordhaus & Xi Chen, 2015. "A sharper image? Estimates of the precision of nighttime lights as a proxy for economic statistics," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 217-246.
    17. Abhishek Singhal & Sohini Sahu & Siddhartha Chattopadhyay & Abhijit Mukherjee & Soumendra N Bhanja, 2020. "Using night time lights to find regional inequality in India and its relationship with economic development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.
    18. Addison,Douglas M. & Stewart,Benjamin P., 2015. "Nighttime lights revisited : the use of nighttime lights data as a proxy for economic variables," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7496, The World Bank.
    19. 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.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Night lights; inequality; GDP; DMSP; VIIRS; Indonesia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • 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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