Look Into the Light

I never thought economists could be so creative. This is a out of the box (so 90's I know) and illuminating (excuse the pun) way by which to track economic growth.

From Seed...

New analytical techniques and satellites may soon open a more rigorous frontier for measuring economic activity from space. Research shows a link between changes in a country’s GDP and the intensity of its electric lighting: On average, as a country’s GDP increases, its nighttime light emission becomes more intense. The work is particularly promising for measuring growth in the developing world, where the quality of collected economic data is notoriously poor.

Henderson cites the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example of where data quality is poor. According to the Penn World Table, during the period from 1992 to 2003 the country had negative GDP growth. In that same period, the satellite data shows a marked increase in nighttime light intensity, suggestive of positive growth, likely in the informal sector. Henderson says Myanmar’s numbers, on the other hand, may show political manipulation: Nocturnal lights indicate significantly lower GDP growth than that stated by the ruling military junta.