Learn how to turn satellite images of nighttime lights into estimates of regional income, then measure how unequal regions are within each country. Step by step in Python, we test whether regional inequality first rises and then falls as countries develop.
Do gaps between rich and poor regions within a country first widen and then narrow as the country develops? Using simulated data for 56 countries that mirrors a published study, we measure regional inequality and trace how it rises and falls with income, from simple to more flexible methods. This R tutorial comes with an interactive app that runs in your web browser.
As countries grow richer, do the gaps between their regions first widen and then narrow, or do they widen again at the top? This Python tutorial uses satellite images of night lights for about 180 countries and compares each country with itself over time, finding an N-shaped pattern. It comes with an interactive app that runs in your web browser.
Do regional gaps within a country first widen and then narrow as the country gets richer? We find that this inverted-U pattern holds, and that natural resource wealth, farmland, and ethnic inequality are also among the most reliable predictors of regional inequality.
This paper studies the evolution of economic and social disparities across subnational regions in South America using simple spatial convergence models.
Using a novel dataset, we analysis the spatio-temporal dynamics of income per capita across 34 provinces and 514 districts in Indonesia over the 2010–2017 period.
By applying a non-linear dynamic factor model, this article tests the club convergence hypothesis using a novel dataset of income at the district level. The results show significant five convergence clubs.
Across ASEAN regions, almost 60 percent of the differences in GDP per capita can be predicted by a luminosity-based measure of GDP. Based on this measure, regional inequality within most countries has not significantly decreased, spatial dependence is increasing, and spatial clusters (hotspots and coldspots) cross multiple national boundaries.