By Robert Estupinian
The Wall Street Journal reported on three economists from Brown University that have come up with an alternative method of determining economic growth.
They are suggesting that night time satellite pictures may prove to give us some insight
on whether their is an increase or decrease in economic growth.
The researchers noticed that there was a correlation in income data when comparing Eastern European countries.
They found that in those countries like Moldova and Ukraine where income per capita feel by 30% and 35% respectfully, the light intensity also drooped by 68% and 47% respectfully.
Now in Hungary, Poland and Romania where income levels actually rose by 41%,56% and 23% respectfully the light intensity also rose by 46%,80% and 112%. Basically, “the researchers believe that as income rises, so does light usage per person in both consumption activities and many investment activities”.
Now even the researchers are stating that this is not an exact science, but it it does give researchers a way to study economic growth in places where there is no other data to look at. So here we have included a picture of the United States from 2003 as an illustration. Interesting to see where the light intensity is the highest.