Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights

Economic inequality at the local level has been shown to be an important predictor of people’s political perceptions and preferences. However, research on these questions is hampered by the fact that local inequality is difficult to measure and systematic data collections are rare, in particular in...

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Autores principales:	Nils B. Weidmann, Gerlinde Theunissen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	economic inequality nighttime light emissions VIIRS spatial measurement Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/dfa12c7130b940028ce3e05cc16ecf9d
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:dfa12c7130b940028ce3e05cc16ecf9d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:dfa12c7130b940028ce3e05cc16ecf9d2021-11-25T18:54:51ZEstimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights10.3390/rs132246242072-4292https://doaj.org/article/dfa12c7130b940028ce3e05cc16ecf9d2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/22/4624https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292Economic inequality at the local level has been shown to be an important predictor of people’s political perceptions and preferences. However, research on these questions is hampered by the fact that local inequality is difficult to measure and systematic data collections are rare, in particular in countries of the Global South. We propose a new measure of local inequality derived from nighttime light (NTL) emissions data. Our measure corresponds to the local inequality in per capita nighttime light emissions, using <i>VIIRS</i>-derived nighttime light emissions data and spatial population data from <i>WorldPop</i>. We validate our estimates using local inequality estimates from the <i>Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)</i> for a sample of African countries. Our results show that nightlight-based inequality estimates correspond well to those derived from survey data, and that the relationship is not due to structural factors such as differences between urban and rural regions. We also present predictive results, where we approximate the (survey-based) level of local inequality with our nighttime light indicator. This illustrates how our approach can be used for new cases where no other data are available.Nils B. WeidmannGerlinde TheunissenMDPI AGarticleeconomic inequalitynighttime light emissionsVIIRSspatial measurementScienceQENRemote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 4624, p 4624 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	economic inequality nighttime light emissions VIIRS spatial measurement Science Q
spellingShingle	economic inequality nighttime light emissions VIIRS spatial measurement Science Q Nils B. Weidmann Gerlinde Theunissen Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
description	Economic inequality at the local level has been shown to be an important predictor of people’s political perceptions and preferences. However, research on these questions is hampered by the fact that local inequality is difficult to measure and systematic data collections are rare, in particular in countries of the Global South. We propose a new measure of local inequality derived from nighttime light (NTL) emissions data. Our measure corresponds to the local inequality in per capita nighttime light emissions, using <i>VIIRS</i>-derived nighttime light emissions data and spatial population data from <i>WorldPop</i>. We validate our estimates using local inequality estimates from the <i>Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)</i> for a sample of African countries. Our results show that nightlight-based inequality estimates correspond well to those derived from survey data, and that the relationship is not due to structural factors such as differences between urban and rural regions. We also present predictive results, where we approximate the (survey-based) level of local inequality with our nighttime light indicator. This illustrates how our approach can be used for new cases where no other data are available.
format	article
author	Nils B. Weidmann Gerlinde Theunissen
author_facet	Nils B. Weidmann Gerlinde Theunissen
author_sort	Nils B. Weidmann
title	Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
title_short	Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
title_full	Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
title_fullStr	Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
title_full_unstemmed	Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights
title_sort	estimating local inequality from nighttime lights
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/dfa12c7130b940028ce3e05cc16ecf9d
work_keys_str_mv	AT nilsbweidmann estimatinglocalinequalityfromnighttimelights AT gerlindetheunissen estimatinglocalinequalityfromnighttimelights
_version_	1718410558714150912

Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights

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