"The key question that the paper tries to tackle is whether the checks and balances provided by democracy are able to constrain governments' desire to manipulate information or, more specifically, their desire to exaggerate how well the economy is doing," Martinez said by email. "The way I try to answer the question above is by comparing GDP (a self-reported indicator, prone to manipulation) and nighttime lights (recorded by satellites from outer space and much harder to manipulate) as measures of economic activity."