[LeapingLennie]

The Economist recently reported on a study that used the brightness of countries' lights at night as proxy for GDP[1][2]. The study suggests China and other autocracies have significantly exaggerated their GDP growth over the last twenty years.

[1]: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/09/29/a-study-...

[2]: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper/how-much-should-we-tr...

[MikePlacid]

One of the things that struck me as weird after landing in the US - is how wasteful the lightning here is. If I was an autocratic ruler, I would definitely scaled it back a couple of times.

[papreclip]

I would scale it back as an autocratic ruler even if hurt GDP. It would be nice to see more of the night sky

[Ekaros]

Or in general. Living in sparsely populated country with what in other places would qualify as towns. Driving motorway towards one of the at night. Like tens of kilometers out in middle forest you see a clearly lighted up horizon. The light pollution is real.

[veltas]

I want to say "this could be a false correlation" and recommend against believing the study's suggestion, but the damage is already done. Most of the thousands of people that read this article and the handful of people that read your comment have come away being convinced of something that could very well be false as if it were scientific fact because it was in the Economist and it's a "study".

[david-gpu]

The authors of the study looked at several possible alternative hypotheses. I suggest reading it before dismissing it.

[leosarev]

I could for example use a sales of buckwheat as a proxy of GDP! I think ut will be some interesting reporting about who is exaggerated their GDP!

[chriswarbo]

Interesting idea. How large are your sample sizes, and what are the 95% confidence intervals on your results?