The nighttime light data records artificial light on the Earth's surface and can be used to
estimate the spatial distribution of the gross domestic product (GDP) and the electric power …

I study the overstatement of economic growth in autocracies by comparing self-reported
GDP figures to night-time light recorded by satellites from outer space. I show that the night …

Motivated by the prevalence of economic targets at all levels of territory administration in
China, this article proposes a Tullock contest model to study optimal target setting in a multi …

Since the 1998 “wind of falsification and embellishment,” Chinese official statistics on gross
domestic product (GDP) have repeatedly come under scrutiny. This paper evaluates the …

We apply the discontinuity methodology from the accounting literature to a political economy
setting of GDP reporting and examine whether Chinese local governments manage regional …

Following the rise of the Chinese economy, interest in the official statistics coming from
China is intensifying. Official data on GDP, industrial production and other economic …

China has experienced remarkably stable growth and inflation in recent years according to
official statistics. We use systematic discrepancies between cross-sectional and time-series …

This paper studies the effect of promotion incentive on county officials' GDP manipulation in
China, both theoretically and empirically. We employ satellite nightlight data to estimate a …

China researchers make frequent use of official Chinese statistics, but these statistics are
often not well understood. This article clarifies three major issues that affect a wide range of …

I study the manipulation of GDP statistics in weak and non-democracies. I show that the
elasticity of official GDP figures to nighttime lights is systematically larger in more …