Estimating Mexican municipal-level economic activity indicators using nighttime lights

Francisco Corona, Elio Atenógenes Villaseñor, Jesús López-Pérez and Ranyart R. Suárez
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Elio Atenógenes Villaseñor: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía
Jesús López-Pérez: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía
Ranyart R. Suárez: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía

Empirical Economics, 2023, vol. 65, issue 3, No 5, 1197-1214

Abstract: Abstract In this paper we address the problem of estimating of Municipal-level of Mexican economic activity indicators (IAEM in Spanish) by using different data sources. We build on the preliminary estimations of López-Pérez and Corona (Real Datos Espac Rev Int Estad Geogr 1(3):102–123, 2020), however because of the shortcomings of standard data sources, such as national accounts and economic censuses, in terms of update frequency, this study enhances preliminary estimations with nighttime lights data. We rely on the statistic relation between economic activity with nighttime lights intensity, and the uncorrelatedness of the latter with the measurement error in the preliminary estimations to produce an estimate of true economic growth, as has been described, among others, in and Mendoza (Empir Econ 57(3):971–990, 2019). Our results are interesting in three ways: (i) develops a practitioner's guide for estimating IAEM for all Mexican municipalities since 1993, (ii) for users and analysts of economic information provides detailed results of economic activity evolution for some municipalities, (iii) represent a novel application pursuant Big Data in economics framework.

Keywords: True economic activity; Big data; Economic censuses; Municipal-level economic activity indicators; Nighttime lights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 C19 C50 C55 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s00181-023-02376-z

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