Macroeconomic theories of growth and wealth distribution have an outsized influence on national and international social and economic policy . Yet, due to a relative lack of reliable, system wide data, many such theories remain, at best, unvalidated and, at worst, misleading. In this paper, we introduce a novel economic observatory and framework for high resolution comparison and assessment of the distributional impact of economic development through  remote sensing of the earth's surface. Striking visual and empirical validation is observed for broad macroeconomic sigma-convergence in the period immediately following the end of the Cold war as well as strong global divergence dynamics immediately following the financial crisis and Great Recession, the rise of China, the decline of U.S. manufacturing, the euro crisis,  Arab Spring, and  Middle East conflicts  .
Macroeconomic theories of growth and wealth distribution have an outsized influence on national and international social and economic policies . Yet, due to a relative lack of reliable, system wide data, many such theories remain, at best, unvalidated and, at worst, misleading. In this paper, we introduce a novel economic observatory and framework enabling high resolution comparisons and assessments of the distributional impact of economic development through the remote sensing of planet earth's surface. Striking visual and empirical validation is observed for a broad, global macroeconomic sigma-convergence in the period immediately following the end of the Cold War. What is more, we observe strong empirical evidence that the mechanisms driving sigma-convergence failed immediately after the financial crisis and the start of the Great Recession. Nevertheless, analysis of both cross-country and cross-state samples indicates that, globally, disproportionately high growth levels and excessively high decay levels have become rarer over time. We also see that urban areas, especially concentrated within short distances of major capital cities were more likely than rural or suburban areas to see relatively high growth in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Observed changes in growth polarity can be attributed plausibly to post-crisis government intervention and subsidy policies introduced around the world. Overall, the data and techniques we present here make economic evidence for the rise of China, the decline of U.S. manufacturing, the euro crisis, the Arab Spring, and various, recent, Middle East conflicts visually evident for the first time .
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for high resolution comparison and assessment
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war as well as strong global divergence dynamics immediately following
War. What is more, we observe strong empirical evidence that the mechanisms driving sigma-convergence failed immediately after
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Great Recession, the
the start of the Great Recession. Nevertheless, analysis of both cross-country and cross-state samples indicates that, globally, disproportionately high growth levels and excessively high decay levels have become rarer over time. We also see that urban areas, especially concentrated within short distances of major capital cities were more likely than rural or suburban areas to see relatively high growth in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Observed changes in growth polarity can be attributed plausibly to post-crisis government intervention and subsidy policies introduced around the world. Overall, the data and techniques we present here make economic evidence for the
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various, recent,
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visually evident for the first time