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A study of lights at night suggests dictators lie about economic growth (2022)
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A 2022 study used satellite data on nighttime lights to analyze economic activity in dictatorships and found that these regimes often exaggerate their reported GDP growth. The research suggests that the brightness of lights at night—a proxy for real economic activity—doesn’t match the official growth figures, implying that authoritarian governments may be lying about their economic performance.
Editor’s Note: This story matters because it exposes how unreliable official economic data can be in non-democratic countries, which has big implications for global investors, policymakers, and anyone trying to assess the true state of these economies. If dictators are fudging the numbers, it could mean hidden instability or even impending crises that the world isn’t prepared for. Plus, it’s a clever example of how alternative data (like satellite images) can uncover truths that governments try to hide.
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