Satellitendaten zur Schätzung von Realeinkommen - Das Beispiel Deutschland

• Published in: Ifo Dresden Berichtet Vol. 22; no. 6; p. 35
• Main Authors: Leßmann, Christian, Seidel, André, Steinkraus, Arne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: München Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (Ifo) 01.11.2015
• Subjects: Data collection; Economic conditions; Estimating techniques; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; International comparisons; Satellite communications; Germany
• ISSN: 0945-5922

A new way of estimating missing regional income data is provided by satellite images of the Earth at night. The basic idea is that economic activities that are in the evenings, need, or emit light. From the light emission at night conclusions can be drawn about economic variables. The aim of this paper is to provide the data used in the literature and to discuss the possibilities and limits of the use of satellite data for the estimation of income. Using the example of Germany will be investigated to what extent the light emission data for regional economic analyzes are useful. It has been found that there is not a particularly large relationship between light emission and regional gross domestic product. For less developed countries, however, the data can be a valuable indicator of the national or regional income, thereby helping to complete the very patchy regional statistics.