Nighttime lights reveal true economic growth, improving accuracy of GDP measurements.
The article "Illuminating Economic Growth" uses satellite-recorded nighttime lights to improve the accuracy of GDP per capita measurements. By analyzing the relationship between nighttime lights and true GDP per capita, the researchers found that official GDP per capita data can be less precise for middle and low-income countries. They discovered that nighttime lights can help create more accurate measures of GDP per capita, especially in these countries.