TY  - BOOK
AU  - Addison,Douglas
AU  - Addison,Douglas
AU  - Stewart,Benjamin
TI  - Nighttime Lights Revisited: The Use of Nighttime Lights Data as a Proxy for Economic Variables. 
PY  - 2015///
CY  - Washington, D.C.
PB  - The World Bank
KW  - Capital
KW  - DMSP-OLS
KW  - E-business
KW  - Earth observation
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Economic monitoring
KW  - Economic theory & research
KW  - Electric power consumption
KW  - Gross domestic product
KW  - Inequality
KW  - Linear regression
KW  - Macroeconomics and economic growth
KW  - Night-time light data
KW  - NPP-VIIRS
KW  - Population
KW  - Poverty reduction
KW  - Private sector development
KW  - Pro-poor growth
KW  - Satellite imagery
N2  - The growing availability of free or inexpensive satellite imagery has inspired many researchers to investigate the use of earth observation data for monitoring economic activity around the world. One of the most popular earth observation data sets is the so-called nighttime lights from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Researchers have found positive correlations between nighttime lights and several economic variables. These correlations are based on data measured in levels, with a cross-section of observations within a single time period across countries or other geographic units. The findings suggest that nighttime lights could be used as a proxy for some economic variables, especially in areas or times where data are weak or unavailable. Yet, logic suggests that nighttime lights cannot serve as a good proxy for monitoring the within-in country growth rates all of these variables. Examples examined this paper include constant price gross domestic product, non-agricultural gross domestic product, manufacturing value added, and capital stocks, as well as electricity consumption, total population, and urban population. The study finds that the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program data are quite noisy and therefore the resulting growth elasticities of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program nighttime lights with respect to most of these socioeconomic variables are low, unstable over time, and generate little explanatory power. The one exception for which Defense Meteorological Satellite Program nighttime lights could serve as a proxy is electricity consumption, measured in 10-year intervals. It is hoped that improved data from the recently launched Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite will help expand or improve these outcomes. Testing this should be an important next step
UR  - http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/1813-9450-7496
ER  -