Is the Zipf law spurious in explaining city-size distributions?

被引：62
|
作者：
Gan, Li
Li, Dong [1 ]
Song, Shunfeng
机构：
[1] Kansas State Univ, Dept Econ, Manhattan, KS 66506 USA
[2] Texas A&M Univ, Dept Econ, College Stn, TX 77843 USA
[3] Univ Nevada, Dept Econ, Reno, NV 89557 USA
来源：
ECONOMICS LETTERS | 2006年 / 92卷 / 02期
关键词：
Zipf law; rank-size; spurious;
D O I：
10.1016/j.econlet.2006.03.004
中图分类号：
F [经济];
学科分类号：
02 ;
摘要：
The Zipf law, which states that that the rank associated with some size S is proportional to S to some negative power, is a regularity observed in natural and social sciences. One popular application of the Zipf law is the relationship between city sizes and their ranks. This paper examines the rank-size relationship through Monte Carlo simulations and two examples. We show that a good fit (indicated by a high R 2 value) can be found for many statistical distributions. The Zipf law's good fit is a statistical phenomenon, and therefore, it does not require an economic theory that determines city-size distributions. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码：256 / 262
页数：7
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