Background paper for World Bank country report
We study the evolution of nightlights in Myanmar’s border regions between 2013 and 2019, a period of pronounced trade liberalization. We find towns on busy border crossings with China and Thailand to have grown disproportionately, as did some towns further inland along border crossing road corridors. However, rural areas in border regions between the main towns did not seem to benefit from the increased trading opportunities, nor did locations situated off the main road corridors. Moreover, border regions with India even saw a reduction in average nightlight intensity, and light growth on the foreign side of border crossings was generally more pronounced than on the Myanmar side. Our findings suggest that political tensions and other constraints might be preventing Myanmar border-region populations from benefiting from the opportunities of cross-border trade.