Measurement errors in popular night lights data may bias estimated impacts of economic sanctions: Evidence from closing the Kaesong Industrial Zone
研究发现，常用的DMSP夜间灯光数据因模糊和底码问题存在测量误差，导致对2016年韩国关闭开城工业园区这一制裁的经济影响估计不准确，实际影响被低估。
Abstract Satellite‐detected night lights data are widely used to evaluate economic impacts of sanctions. Such data should be free from political manipulation. However, measurement errors in these data, from blurring and bottom‐coding, are rarely considered. To study such errors, we use a difference‐in‐differences analysis of impacts of closing the Kaesong Industrial Zone in North Korea—a sanction South Korea imposed in 2016. Luminosity in the affected region declined by a precisely estimated 50 percent. When using the popular Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) night lights data the apparent impacts are imprecisely estimated and far smaller. Measurement errors in DMSP data may distort evaluations of sanctions.