Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 May 24;108(21):8589-94. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1017031108. Epub 2011 May 16.
A pervasive issue in social and environmental research has been how to improve the quality of socioeconomic data in developing countries. Given the shortcomings of standard sources, the present study examines luminosity (measures of nighttime lights visible from space) as a proxy for standard measures of output (gross domestic product). We compare output and luminosity at the country level and at the 1° latitude × 1° longitude grid-cell level for the period 1992-2008. We find that luminosity has informational value for countries with low-quality statistical systems, particularly for those countries with no recent population or economic censuses.
社会和环境研究中一个普遍存在的问题是如何提高发展中国家社会经济数据的质量。鉴于标准数据源的缺点，本研究以光度（从太空可见的夜间灯光测量值）作为标准产出（国内生产总值）的替代指标进行研究。我们在国家层面和 1°纬度×1°经度网格单元层面比较了 1992-2008 年期间的产出和光度。我们发现，光度对于统计系统质量较低的国家具有信息价值，特别是对于那些最近没有人口或经济普查的国家。
