Nighttime Lights as a Proxy for Economic Performance of Regions

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Studying and managing regional economic development in the current globalization era demands prompt reliable and comparable estimates for a region's economic performance.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Night-time lights (NTL) emitted from residential areas entertainment places industrial facilities etc. and captured by satellites have become an increasingly recognized proxy for on-ground human activities. Compared to traditional indicators supplied by statistical offices NTLs may have several advantages. First NTL data are available all over the world providing researchers and official bodies with the opportunity to obtain estimates even for regions with extremely poor reporting practices. Second in contrast to non-standardized traditional reporting procedures the unified NTL data remove the problem of inter-regional comparability. Finally NTL data are currently globally available on a daily basis which makes it possible to obtain these estimates promptly.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In this book we provide the reader with the contributions demonstrating the potential and efficiency of using NTL data as a proxy for the performance of regions.</span></p>