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Night lights and regional income inequality in Africa

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  • Anthony Mveyange

Abstract

Estimating regional income inequality in Africa has been challenging due to the lack of reliable and consistent sub-national income data. I employ night lights data to circumvent this limitation. I find significant and positive associations between regional inequality visible through night lights and income in Africa. Thus, in the absence of income data, we can construct regional inequality proxies using night lights data.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Mveyange, 2015. "Night lights and regional income inequality in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2015-085
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Eric Gaisie, 2017. "Living standards in pre-independent Ghana: evidence from household budgets," HHB Working Papers Series 7, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    2. Carlos Mendez & Felipe Santos‐Marquez, 2021. "Regional convergence and spatial dependence across subnational regions of ASEAN: Evidence from satellite nighttime light data," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(6), pages 1750-1777, December.
    3. Laura Caron, 2022. "Empty digital wallets: new technologies and old inequalities in digital financial services among women," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pages 1-29.
    4. Axel Dreher & Steffen Lohmann, 2015. "Aid and growth at the regional level," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 31(3-4), pages 420-446.
    5. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban, 2022. "Economic geography of contagion: A study on Covid-19 outbreak in India," SocArXiv gp2wr, Center for Open Science.
    6. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban, 2022. "Economic geography of contagion: A study on Covid-19 outbreak in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1028, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Gregor Pfeifer & Fabian Wahl & Martyna Marczak, 2018. "Illuminating the World Cup effect: Night lights evidence from South Africa," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 887-920, November.
    8. Jaqueson K Galimberti & Stefan Pichler & Regina Pleninger, 2023. "Measuring Inequality Using Geospatial Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(4), pages 549-569.
    9. Lessmann, Christian & Seidel, André, 2017. "Regional inequality, convergence, and its determinants – A view from outer space," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 110-132.
    10. Tony Addison & Amadou Boly & Anthony Mveyange, 2016. "Mining and economic development: Did China's WTO accession affect African local economic development?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-141, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Russ, Jason, 2020. "Water runoff and economic activity: The impact of water supply shocks on growth," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    12. Kacou Yves Thierry Kacou, 2022. "Interregional inequality in Africa, convergence, and multiple equilibria: Evidence from nighttime light data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 918-940, May.
    13. Tanika Chakraborty & Anirban Mukherjee, 2023. "Economic geography of contagion: a study of COVID-19 outbreak in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 779-811, April.
    14. Bolt, Jutta & Gardner, Leigh, 2019. "African institutions under colonial rule," CEPR Discussion Papers 14198, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Addison,Tony & Boly,Amadou & Mveyange,Anthony Francis, 2016. "Mining and economic development : did China's WTO accession affect African local economic development ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7906, The World Bank.
    16. Thomas Ferreira, 2018. "Using satellite data to track socio-economic outcomes: a case study of Namibia," Working Papers 12/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    17. Abhishek Singhal & Sohini Sahu & Siddhartha Chattopadhyay & Abhijit Mukherjee & Soumendra N Bhanja, 2020. "Using night time lights to find regional inequality in India and its relationship with economic development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.

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