Table 1.
Data sources and coverage.
Fig 1.
Geographic distribution of DHS survey clusters in Africa.
Base map data from the spData package in R, derived from Natural Earth (public domain). Household Wealth Index data is derived from DHS. The figure depicts geographical distribution of DHS clusters in the sample, with points colored by household wealth category (Poorest to Richest). Countries shaded in gray represent those included in the study. The figure was created by the author.
Fig 2.
Geolocated DHS clusters in Africa, colored by NTL.
Base map data from the spData package in R, derived from Natural Earth (public domain). Nighttime lights data (NTL) is derived from Li et al. (2020). The figure depicts geolocated DHS clusters across Africa, overlaid with harmonized NTL data. Clusters are colored by NTL intensity (low to high), with darker shades representing higher light emissions. Countries included in the study are shaded in gray. The figure was created by the author.
Fig 3.
Geolocated DHS clusters in Africa, colored by GDP per capita.
Base map data from the spData package in R, derived from Natural Earth (public domain). Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc) data is from Kammu et al. (2018). The figure depicts geolocated DHS clusters across Africa, categorized by GDPpc quintiles. Darker colors indicate higher income levels. Countries shaded in gray represent those included in the study. The figure was created by the author.
Fig 4.
Geolocated DHS clusters in Africa, colored by HDI.
Base map data from the spData package in R, derived from Natural Earth (public domain). Human Development Index (HDI) is sourced from Kammu et al. (2018). The figure depicts geolocated DHS clusters in Africa, categorized by HDI quintiles. Darker colors indicate higher levels of human development. Countries shaded in gray represent those included in the analysis. The figure was created by the author.
Table 2.
Summary statistics.
Fig 5.
Author’s calculations for pairwise correlations among key variables. Wealth Index, Nightime Light (NTL), Population Density (PopDen), Human Development Index (HDI), and Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc). Wealth Index data is derived from DHS. NTL data is derived from Li et al. (2020). PopDen is sourced from the GPWv4, HDI and GDPpc data are both from Kummu et al. (2018). For more details, see Table 1. The size and color intensity of the circles indicate the strength and direction of the correlations, with darker blue representing stronger positive correlations and lighter shades or red (if present) indicating weaker or negative correlations.
Table 3.
OLS regression results with country and year fixed effects.
Table 4.
OLS regression for wealth index in urban v/s rural areas.
Table 5.
OLS regression for GDP per capita with country and year fixed effects.
Table 6.
OLS regression for HDI with country and year fixed effects.