Exploring factors affecting the relationship between light consumption and GDP based on DMSP/OLS nighttime satellite imagery

•Time fixed panel regression is used to eliminate error caused by satellites.•How GDP affects night lights depends on some other factors significantly.•GDP is broken down to detect agricultural and non-agricultural contribution.•An inverted “U” curve is found between night lights per capita and GDP per capita.

We consider night light as a type of consumer goods and propose a model for factors affecting the relationship between night lights and GDP. It is then decomposed into agricultural and non-agricultural productions. Further, the model is modified to determine how the factors affect residents' propensity to consume lights. Models are tested with time-fixed regression on a set of 15-year panel data of 169 countries globally and regionally. We find that light consumption propensity is affected by GDP per capita, latitude, spatial distribution of human activities and gross saving rate, and that light consumption per capita has an inverted-U relationship with GDP per capita.