【主题】Can Fixed Effects Models “Fix” Satellite Data?
【报告人】赵锂 (助理教授, 上海交通大学)
【时间】5月21日（星期二） 15：30-17：00
【地点】701
【语言】英文
【摘要/Abstract】Satellite data have attracted growing attention from economists as an ideal measure of economic conditions both globally and locally. In this paper, we use nigh light data as a motivating example to discuss a lesser known feature of satellite data: the systematic variation of data values across satellites and time due to changing sensitivities of remote sensing devices. We characterize this feature via a fixed effects model with time-varying measurement functions. We show that the time fixed effects —— the usual solution used in the economics literature —— cannot control for such variation. Motivated by the inter-calibration methods in the remote sensing function, we propose a way to solve the measurement issue and show the consistency of our estimator. Monte Carlo studies further confirm our results.
