IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/17220.html

Measuring Firm Activity from Outer Space

Author

Listed:
  • Bilicka, Katarzyna
  • Seidel, Andre

Abstract

To understand how global firm networks operate, we need consistent information on their activities, unbiased by their reporting choices. In this paper, we collect a novel dataset on the light that factories emit at night for a large sample of car manufacturing plants. We show that nightlight data can measure activity at such a granular level, using annual firm financial data and high-frequency data related to Covid-19 pandemic production shocks. We use this data to quantify the extent of misreported global operations of these car manufacturing firms and examine differences between sources of nightlight.

Suggested Citation

  • Bilicka, Katarzyna & Seidel, Andre, 2022. "Measuring Firm Activity from Outer Space," CEPR Discussion Papers 17220, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP17220
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Shapiro, Daniel & Oh, Chang Hoon & Zhang, Peng, 2023. "Nighttime lights data and their implications for IB research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    3. Giorgio Chiovelli & Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou & Tanner Regan, 2025. "Illuminating the Global South," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 2507, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    4. Katarzyna Bilicka, 2025. "Labor market consequences of antitax avoidance policies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(2), pages 429-465, April.
    5. Tafese, Tevin & Lay, Jann & Tran, Van, 2025. "From fields to factories: Special economic zones, foreign direct investment, and labour markets in Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    6. Tanner Regan & Giorgio Chiovelli & Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2023. "Illuminating Africa?," Working Papers 2023-11, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    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:cpr:ceprdp:17220. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.