Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/126344 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2015/085
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Estimating regional income inequality in Africa has been challenging due to the lack of reliable and consistent sub-national income data. I employ night lights data to circumvent this limitation. I find significant and positive associations between regional inequality visible through night lights and income in Africa. Thus, in the absence of income data, we can construct regional inequality proxies using night lights data. Further investigation on the night lights-based regional inequality trends reveals two main findings: first, increasing regional inequality trends between 1992 and 2003; and second, declining regional inequality trends between 2004 and 2012.
Subjects: 
regional income inequality
night lights
Africa
JEL: 
I132
R10
O55
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9230-974-9
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.