IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025i4p4909-4921.html

Glowing Indicators: Nighttime Luminosity as a Tool for Assessing SDG‐8 Progress in Emerging Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Jingnan Zhou
  • Qurat ul Ain
  • Tahir Yousaf
  • Kaiyang Zhong

Abstract

Tracking the economic development of local governments in emerging economies is difficult with conventional data. This paper shows that the nighttime luminosity lights can be used as a reliable proxy for economic growth at the county level. To access this, the research employs the time‐varying difference‐in‐difference technique, utilizing a longitudinal data set at the county level to scrutinize the incentive effects of this Province Managing County (PMC) reform on economic growth using nighttime luminosity lights. The analysis reveals that the local fiscal incentives introduced by this reform and achieved through alleviating fiscal stress and providing expenditure autonomy significantly impact economic growth activity and influence local government policy decisions. The outcomes manifest more conspicuously in regions with dense nighttime luminosity and those characterized by more market‐driven efficiencies and industrial upgradation. Additionally, the reform encourages counties to adopt a more proactive fiscal policy characterized by increased capital expenditure to promote economic growth while reducing expenditures on public service provisions. These findings support positing that a flattened hierarchical structure ameliorates delays in fiscal matters and facilitates communication across various levels of government in the context of improved marketization and upgraded industrial upgradation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingnan Zhou & Qurat ul Ain & Tahir Yousaf & Kaiyang Zhong, 2025. "Glowing Indicators: Nighttime Luminosity as a Tool for Assessing SDG‐8 Progress in Emerging Economies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 4909-4921, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:4:p:4909-4921
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3382
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3382
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3382?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shaoda Wang & David Y. Yang, 2021. "Policy Experimentation in China: the Political Economy of Policy Learning," NBER Working Papers 29402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Simon Alder & Lin Shao & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2016. "Economic reforms and industrial policy in a panel of Chinese cities," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 305-349, December.
    3. Salinas, Paula & Solé-Ollé, Albert, 2018. "Partial fiscal decentralization reforms and educational outcomes: A difference-in-differences analysis for Spain," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 31-46.
    4. Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2012. "Soft budget constraints and strategic interactions in subnational borrowing: Evidence from the German States, 1975–2005," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 114-127.
    5. Jia, Junxue & Guo, Qingwang & Zhang, Jing, 2014. "Fiscal decentralization and local expenditure policy in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 107-122.
    6. Junxue Jia & Jing Ning & Jing Zhang, 2023. "Information transparency, monitoring, and incentives under decentralization: Evidence from China's fiscal reform of “province managing county”," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 263-289, March.
    7. Eliana La Ferrara & Alberto Chong & Suzanne Duryea, 2012. "Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 1-31, October.
    8. Choudhury, Atrayee & Sahu, Sohini, 2023. "Reconciling the mixed evidence in the fiscal decentralization-government size nexus using panel quantile regression," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    9. Pranab Bardhan & Dilip Mookherjee, 2006. "Decentralisation and Accountability in Infrastructure Delivery in Developing Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 101-127, January.
    10. Ciro Biderman & JoãoMP DeMello & Alexandre Schneider, 2010. "Dry Laws and Homicides: Evidence from the São Paulo Metropolitan Area," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 157-182, March.
    11. Filipe Campante & David Yanagizawa-Drott, 2015. "Editor's Choice Does Religion Affect Economic Growth and Happiness? Evidence from Ramadan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 615-658.
    12. Adam Storeygard, 2016. "Farther on down the Road: Transport Costs, Trade and Urban Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(3), pages 1263-1295.
    13. Yang, Zhenbing & Shao, Shuai & Xu, Lili & Yang, Lili, 2022. "Can regional development plans promote economic growth? City-level evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. Harsh Ketkar & Maciej Workiewicz, 2022. "Power to the people: The benefits and limits of employee self‐selection in organizations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 935-963, May.
    15. Jiang, Weijie & Li, Yidong, 2023. "Effect of fiscal decentralization on pollution reduction: Firm-level evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    16. Matthew Gentzkow, 2006. "Television and Voter Turnout," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 931-972.
    17. Sumit Agarwal & Wenlan Qian, 2014. "Consumption and Debt Response to Unanticipated Income Shocks: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Singapore," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 4205-4230, December.
    18. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    19. Weingast, Barry R., 2009. "Second generation fiscal federalism: The implications of fiscal incentives," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 279-293, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qurat ul Ain, 2025. "Optimizing China's economic performance through government hierarchy restructuring," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(2), pages 487-516, April.
    2. Tahir Yousaf, 2025. "Balancing act: Examining the trade‐offs between regional convergence and economic growth in China's province managing county reform," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(2), pages 339-368, April.
    3. Jingyuan Yu & Shuai Chen & Linmu Li, 2025. "Reform of government level and local environmental pollution: evidence from China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 3609-3628, February.
    4. Jia, Junxue & Ding, Siying & Liu, Yongzheng, 2020. "Decentralization, incentives, and local tax enforcement," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    5. Yu Qi & Jinliang Yu, 2023. "Decentralization and local pollution activities: New quasi evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 115-159, January.
    6. Tahir Yousaf & Muhammad Faisal Shahzad & Qurat ul Ain, 2025. "Evaluating the environmental impacts of Chinese decentralization policies toward SDG 13," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 939-956, February.
    7. Chen, Wenhui & Xu, Jinhai & Chen, Xiangpo & Hu, Xinyan, 2024. "Creating cities and food security challenge: Evidence from the city–county merger policy in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Niu, Geng & Jin, XiaoShu & Wang, Qi & Zhou, Yang, 2022. "Broadband infrastructure and digital financial inclusion in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    10. Wang, Ge & Shi, Xinjie & Golley, Jane, 2024. "Feed the children, free the women? Evidence from the China rural nutrition improvement program," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Xiang, Xunyong & Luo, Wenjie & Li, Bin & Liang, Wenquan, 2025. "Decentralized government and firm pollution discharges: Evidence from China’s Province-Managing-County reform," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    12. Chen, Shiyi & Jiang, Lingduo & Liu, Wanlin & Song, Hong, 2022. "Fireworks regulation, air pollution, and public health: Evidence from China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Mengna Luan & Wenjing Shi & Zhigang Tao & Hongjie Yuan, 2023. "When patients have better insurance coverage in China: Provider incentives, costs, and quality of care," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 1073-1106, October.
    14. Chen, Yixin & Lyu, Bingyang & Niu, Mengqi, 2026. "Balancing efficiency and equity in fiscal decentralization: theory and evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    15. Gao, Ming & Gu, Qiankun & He, Shijun, 2022. "Place-based policies, administrative hierarchy, and city growth: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    16. Chen, Jidong & Shi, Xinzheng & Zhang, Ming-ang & Zhang, Sihan, 2024. "Centralization of environmental administration and air pollution: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Xiaodong Chen & Haoming Mi & Peng Zhou, 2024. "Whether to decentralize and how to decentralize? The optimal fiscal federalism in an endogenous growth model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(29), pages 3499-3516, June.
    18. Cui, Yi, 2024. "Place-based policies and capital misallocation: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(4).
    19. David Bartolini & Agnese Sacchi & Domenico Scalera & Alberto Zazzaro, 2018. "The closer the better? Institutional distance and information blurring in a political agency model," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 146, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    20. Chang, Dingyi & Zhang, Ning, 2024. "The effect of cultural system reform on tourism development: Evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 77-90.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:4:p:4909-4921. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.