Zipf's law in city size from a resource utilization model

Asim Ghosh, Arnab Chatterjee, Anindya S. Chakrabarti and Bikas K Chakrabarti

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We study a resource utilization scenario characterized by intrinsic fitness. To describe the growth and organization of different cities, we consider a model for resource utilization where many restaurants compete, as in a game, to attract customers using an iterative learning process. Results for the case of restaurants with uniform fitness are reported. When fitness is uniformly distributed, it gives rise to a Zipf law for the number of customers. We perform an exact calculation for the utilization fraction for the case when choices are made independent of fitness. A variant of the model is also introduced where the fitness can be treated as an ability to stay in the business. When a restaurant loses customers, its fitness is replaced by a random fitness. The steady state fitness distribution is characterized by a power law, while the distribution of the number of customers still follows the Zipf law, implying the robustness of the model. Our model serves as a paradigm for the emergence of Zipf law in city size distribution.

Date: 2014-03, Revised 2014-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Phys. Rev. E 90 (2014) 042815

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