Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: What Drives Human-Made Light?

Dickinson, Jeffrey (2020): Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: What Drives Human-Made Light?

Abstract

This paper links the newest generation of nighttime satellite images, which offer a resolution 45 times higher than the previous generation, to nationwide administrative panel-data on population and income from the United States and Brazil for the years 2012-2019. Using this fine-grained data, I confirm that nighttime light responds strongly to changes in income even after controlling for population effects. When population is included directly in the model, light is less responsive to changes in GDP in Brazil than in the USA. In Brazil, though not in the USA, except for the highest-producing municípios, the effect of changes in population appear to track more closely with nighttime lights than changes in economic output. A between-county estimator provides identification of the effects of time-invariant characteristics and infrastructure features on night-time light. My estimates suggest that railways are associated with lower levels of nighttime light while border crossings contribute positively and significantly to nighttime light.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: night-time light, GDP, population, infrastructure, regional development
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C33 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E0 - General > E00 - General; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E0 - General > E01 - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth ; Environmental Accounts; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O10 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O18 - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis ; Housing ; Infrastructure; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O40 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O51 - U.S. ; Canada; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R10 - General; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity

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