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American Economic Review: Vol. 102 No. 2 (April 2012)
AER Volume. 102, Issue 2 | 
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AER Forthcoming Articles
Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space
Article Citation
Henderson, J. Vernon,
Adam Storeygard, and
David N. Weil. 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space."
American Economic Review,
102(2): 994-1028.
DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.2.994
DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.2.994
Abstract
We develop a statistical framework to use satellite data on night lights to augment official income growth measures. For countries with poor national income accounts, the optimal estimate of growth is a composite with roughly equal weights on conventionally measured growth and growth predicted from lights. Our estimates differ from official data by up to three percentage points annually. Using lights, empirical analyses of growth need no longer use countries as the unit of analysis; we can measure growth for sub- and supranational regions. We show, for example, that coastal areas
in sub-Saharan Africa are growing slower than the hinterland. (JEL E01, E23, O11, 047, 057)
Article Full-Text Access
Full-text Article
Additional Materials
Download Data Set (10.03 GB) | Online Appendix (149.40 KB)
Authors
Henderson, J. Vernon (Brown U)
Storeygard, Adam (Brown U)
Weil, David N. (Brown U)
Storeygard, Adam (Brown U)
Weil, David N. (Brown U)
JEL Classifications
E01: Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
E23: Macroeconomics: Production
O11: Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O47: Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
O57: Comparative Studies of Countries
E23: Macroeconomics: Production
O11: Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O47: Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
O57: Comparative Studies of Countries
