• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

G²LM|LIC

  • About
    • History
    • Investigators
    • Team
  • Projects
    • GLM|LIC
      • Agricultural Labour Markets
      • Gender and Employment
      • Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries
      • Migration
      • Skill Training
    • G²LM|LIC
      • Fact & Policy
      • Fertility & Labour markets
      • Barriers to gender parity
      • The Future of Work
      • Policies & Welfare
    • COVID-19
  • Publications
    • Policy Briefs
    • Synthesis Papers
    • Working Papers
    • Published Articles
    • Book
    • Datasets
  • Events
  • Evidence Finder
  • Jobs of the World
Published Article

Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Nigh-Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform

The SHRUG is an open data platform describing multidimensional socioeconomic development across 600,000 villages and towns in India. This paper presents three illustrative analyses only possible with high-resolution data. First, it confirms that nighttime lights are highly significant proxies for population, employment, per capita consumption, and electrification at very local levels. However, elasticities between night-lights and these variables are far lower in time series than in cross section, and vary widely across context and level of aggregation. Next, this study shows that the distribution of manufacturing employment across villages follows a power law: the majority of rural Indians have considerably less access to manufacturing employment than is suggested by aggregate data. Third, a poverty mapping exercise explores local heterogeneity in living standards and estimates the potential targeting improvement from allocating programs at the villag —rather than at the district—level. The SHRUG can serve as a model for open high-resolution data in developing countries.

Title Development Research at High Geographic Resolution: An Analysis of Nigh-Lights, Firms, and Poverty in India Using the SHRUG Open Data Platform
Author
  • Sam Asher
  • Paul Novosad
  • Tobias Lunt
  • Ryu Matsuura
Published in The World Bank Economic Review, 35(4), 845-871
Publication Date 18/03/2021
Thematic AreaLabour Markets in Low-Income Countries
Project The Urban Geography of Entrepreneurship and Growth in India
See Published Article

Primary Sidebar

COVID-19

News from our Twitter Account

  • In a new @GLMLIC #PolicyBrief, @AndrewBrudevold, @PJakiela, Gerald Ipapa, Maddalena Honorati, and @OwenOzier compar… https://t.co/8e04V1LZXa January 31, 2023 12:46 pm
  • In a new @GLMLIC #PolicyBrief, @nihasingh06 and @SharvariRavish1 explore how access to information about local labo… https://t.co/9BCssO5vD0 January 25, 2023 1:30 pm
  • Watch here the Programme Coordinator of the G²LM|LIC Programme, Prof. @orianabandiera, discussing poverty traps, la… https://t.co/Aqht7PPkRI January 10, 2023 1:28 pm
Twitter

Footer

IZA Logo

Established in 1998 in Bonn, Germany, IZA is an independent, non-profit research institution supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation with a focus on the analysis of global labour markets. It operates an international network of about 1,500 economists and researchers spanning across more than 50 countries.

Based on academic excellence and an ambitious publication strategy, IZA serves as a place of communication between academic science and political practice.

DFID Logo

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) leads the UK's work to end extreme poverty. We're ending the need for aid by creating jobs, unlocking the potential of girls and women, and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit.

FCDO is a ministerial department, supported by 12 agencies and public bodies.

© 2012–2023 | IZA – Institute of Labor Economics | Code of Conduct | Imprint