Luminosity and Local Economic Growth

John Gibson, Bonggeun Kim () and Chao Li ()
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Bonggeun Kim: Seoul National University
Chao Li: University of Auckland

Working Papers in Economics from University of Waikato

Abstract: We examine relationships between luminosity and local economic growth for counties in China and the US and districts in Indonesia. Many authors estimate treatment effects on local luminosity growth and transfer GDP-luminosity elasticities from elsewhere to calculate economic growth effects. Our insight is that these GDP-luminosity elasticities vary especially by spatial scale and metro status, and also by period and remote sensing source. The elasticities mainly capture extensive margins of luminosity. Measurement errors in popular DMSP data attenuate GDP-luminosity elasticities but aggregation-sensitivity persists even when using instrumental variables estimation. Consequently, claimed growth effects of various treatments may be quite inaccurate.

Keywords: GDP growth; Luminosity; measurement error; treatment effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 O40 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2024-10-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-sea and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wai:econwp:24/08

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