The size distribution across all “cities”: a unifying approach

Kristian Giesen and Jens Suedekum

No 2012/2, Working Papers from Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB)

Abstract: In this paper we show that the double Pareto lognormal (DPLN) parameterization provides an excellent fit to the overall US city size distribution, regardless of whether “cities” are administratively defined Census places or economically defined area clusters. We then consider an economic model that combines scale-independent urban growth (Gibrat’s law) with endogenous city creation. City sizes converge to a DPLN distribution in this model, which is much better in line with the data than previous urban growth frameworks that predict a lognormal or a Pareto city size distribution (Zipf’s law).

Keywords: Zipf’s law; Gibrat’s law; city size distributions; double Pareto-Lognormal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O4 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://ieb.ub.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2012-IEB-WorkingPaper-02.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Size Distribution Across All 'Cities': A Unifying Approach (2012)
Working Paper: The Size Distribution across all "Cities": A Unifying Approach (2012)
Working Paper: The size distribution across all "Cities": a unifying approach (2012)
Working Paper: The Size Distribution Across All “Cities”: A Unifying Approach (2012)
Working Paper: The size distribution across all 'cities': A unifying approach (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2012-2

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().