Is Chinese Growth Overstated?

Maximo Camacho, Hunter Clark and Xavier Sala-i-Martin

No 20170419, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: For analysts of the Chinese economy, questions about the accuracy of the country’s official GDP data are a frequent source of angst, leading many to seek guidance from alternative indicators. These nonofficial gauges often suggest Beijing’s growth figures are exaggerated, but that conclusion is not supported by our analysis, which draws upon satellite measurements of the intensity of China’s nighttime light emissions—a good proxy for GDP growth that is presumably not subject to whatever measurement errors may affect the country’s official economic statistics.

Keywords: nighttime lights; GDP; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big and nep-ene
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