Tillmann von Carnap

Assistant Professor @UniOslo.

Development economics, economic geography, remote sensing.

[VoxDev @vox_dev]

Monitoring markets from space

Last week on VoxDev, @TCarnap (@UniOslo) & Anna Tompsett (@Stockholm_Uni) showed how tracking rural markets using satellite imagery offers a new way to monitor economic conditions in remote and data-scarce regions: https://t.co/b3LKAObH6j

[VoxDev @vox_dev]

Tracking rural markets using satellite imagery offers a new way to monitor economic conditions in remote, data-scarce regions – as demonstrated by a new research paper and online dashboard.

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

Building on the method presented in the paper, we’re also launching https://t.co/v9jWkqcRwd. This dashboard allows users to see where we have detected marketplaces (>8,000 across Africa and Asia!), and to explore their activity patterns, including for very recent periods.

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

Our paper “Using satellite imagery to map rural marketplaces and monitor their activity at high frequency” is now published in Nature Communications, and VoxDev has published a summary.

[VoxDev @vox_dev]

🆕 Monitoring markets from space

Today on VoxDev, @TCarnap (@UniOslo) & Anna Tompsett (@Stockholm_Uni) show how tracking rural markets using satellite imagery offers a new way to monitor economic conditions in remote and data-scarce regions: https://t.co/b3LKAObH6j

[VoxDev @vox_dev]

🆕 Monitoring markets from space

Today on VoxDev, @TCarnap (@UniOslo) & Anna Tompsett (@Stockholm_Uni) show how tracking rural markets using satellite imagery offers a new way to monitor economic conditions in remote and data-scarce regions: https://t.co/b3LKAObH6j

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

🚨Hiring a research assistant to work with me at the @UniOslo_SVfak 🇳🇴 starting asap.

You'll be working on the Marketplace Activity Index, using 🛰️imagery to track economic activity in remote rural areas.

Please reach out with any questions!

https://t.co/hp5VAwL11N

[Linnea Lorentzen @Linnea_Lor]

📣 Department of Economics at @UniOslo is hiring PhD fellows, starting August 2025! 🇳🇴

Deadline: January 15

More info below 👇🏼

https://t.co/jV0IZJNc10

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

@UniOslo_SVfak @econ_ra @aswede_org

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

🚨Hiring a research assistant to work with me at the @UniOslo_SVfak 🇳🇴 starting asap.

You'll be working on the Marketplace Activity Index, using 🛰️imagery to track economic activity in remote rural areas.

Please reach out with any questions!

https://t.co/hp5VAwL11N

[Institute for International Economic Studies @IIES_Sthlm]

Introducing our #EconJMC @agnetaberge. In her #EconJMP “Two-tier collective wage bargaining in a frictional labor market” she develops a general equilibrium model of two-tier bargaining, where central negotiations are supplemented w local adjustments https://t.co/yIVAERvILE 1/6

[Miika Päällysaho @MPaallysaho]

Check out the fascinating work by the talented job market candidates from @SU_Economics!

Jakob's JMP on debt restructuring programs:
https://t.co/4g0hJg9jK5

Ossian's JMP on carbon pricing and fuel switching by firms, joint work with @MaijaKaartinen:
https://t.co/GsJxA7lwIV

[Minghao Qiu @minghao_qiu]

Hiring ‼️ 🚨I am looking for 1-2 PhD students and 1 postdoc to join my group at
@stonybrooku in Fall 2025. Positions fully funded. We use data, statistical, and physical models to study climate change and air quality to inform global policies! Details: https://t.co/PkIoyGYKTa

[Yuchi Ma, Ph.D. @Yuchima8Ma]

I'm excited to announce that we've published the first-ever public-available 30-meter crop yield maps for the U.S., using Landsat data and a new scale transfer framework. You can explore the details in our newly released paper in #RSE (https://t.co/IoWbsvHYE0) @FoodSecurity_SU.

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

Very grateful for this recognition of my thesis by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences!

[The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences @ScienceAcad_swe]

Akademien belönar forskning kring låginkomstländer, ADHD och autism samt genetisk variation 🌟

Vid gårdagens sammankomst beslutade Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien att utdela priser till Tillman von Carnap, Christoffer Gillberg och Hugo Zeberg.

🔹 Arnbergska priset
Tillmann von Carnap, Stanford University, tilldelas Arnbergska priset 2024 på 105 000 kronor

🔹 Hilda och Alfred Erikssons pris
christopher gillberg, professor vid Göteborgs universitet, tilldelas Hilda och Alfred Erikssons pris år 2024 på 395 000 kronor

🔹Flormanska belöningen
Hugo Zeberg, Karolinska Institutet, tilldelas Flormanska belöningen år 2024 på 105 000 kronor

Läs mer: https://t.co/1Eiv9l6NPU

[Johannes Haushofer @jhaushofer]

Please RT: I'm very excited to launch @malengo's new Kenya–Germany Vocational Training Program for Refugees! We provide one year of intensive language training in Kenya, followed by 1–3 years of vocational training in Germany to become e.g. a nurse. 1/3
https://t.co/wPIRehUydW

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

@noelladart As with any other data, however, it will be important to consider who might be impacted in what way by its publication, especially in conflict settings and with real-time applications

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

We've posted a new version of our working paper "Using satellite imagery to monitor remote rural economies at high frequency".

We track economic activity by measuring attendance in open-air marketplaces with near-daily imagery.

Three key takeaways:
https://t.co/NJSIjaOXzJ

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

@noelladart That's an important question. We are deriving information from commercially available imagery that is acquired globally, about a public phenomenon. We're not tracking anything private.

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

@DogmaticPrior The activity measure is essentially the difference between an individual image taken on a market day and an average of many other images taken on adjacent days. That way, we purge the day-to-day differences from seasonal variation

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

Comments welcome!

We are currently working to derive activity measures for more marketplaces in more countries. Please reach out if you think there might be an interesting overlap!

[Tillmann von Carnap @TCarnap]

3. The method can be used to learn about economic activity trends even when other data sources dry up, such as. We show an application to recent conflict in Ethiopia