Background
Researchers have devised a novel way of measuring economic prosperity of various demographic regions. The general theory is that turning on the lights is associated with wealth. At the outset, this seems rather far-fetched. However, researchers found out that there is a definite relationship between a brightly-lit country and its wealth.
The Experiment
Researchers from the universities of Quinnipiac and Yale used birds-eye view of imaging satellites to gather data from the US department of defense from 1992 to 2008.
The world was divided into cells and the “luminosity” of each cell was measured and compared with others.
Distortions like glare, water vapor and cloud cover were taken into consideration and the annual luminosity figures were then collated for all the grid cells.
The results were then compared with annual World Bank GDP figures.
A definite relationship was seen between the luminosity observed and the level of economic wealth of different regions.
Varying Results
It was seen that even though the figures were close, they were not conclusive enough for wealthy countries like the US and Australia. However, when applied to poorer countries, the indications were fairly accurate.
Moreover, in a few areas like the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was possible to even use this data to indicate the economic health of the country where such data was previously not accessible due to violence and political instability.
