Scholar Voices: Heston

Indian Ocean: Cradle of Globalization
Scholar Voices
Alan Heston

Alan Heston in "Issues of Economic Growth and Development in the Indian Ocean in the New Millennium," provides an overview of development economics (see slides) as an introduction to regional economic issues.Heston states that there are many ways to measure economies, one of which is to measure the use of electricity. To illustrate his point, he displayed satellite images taken at night so that the intensity of the lights can be clearly seen by the naked eye. The lights appear to be quite bright in cities where power usage is high and much less so where usage is lower. The light intensity can be roughly equated to wealth so that power usage is high in wealthier cities and countries, much less so in poorer locales. This innovative measure of the wealth of various economies marked Dr. Heston's entire presentation.

DJR

The Earth at Night ~ NASA Satellite image view intensity of light in cities around the world.

The Indian Ocean and Development Economics (PowerPoint slides, best viewed in Explorer)

Alan Heston

Economics

University of Pennsylvania

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