Zipf's exponent and Zipf's law in the BRICS: a rolling sample regressions approach

Guillermo Peña () and Fernando Sanz-Gracia ()
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Guillermo Peña: Universidad de Zaragoza
Fernando Sanz-Gracia: Universidad de Zaragoza
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Guillermo Peña

Economics Bulletin, 2021, vol. 41, issue 4, 2543-2549

Abstract: Using urban data from the last available census of the five BRICS countries we have tested, by means of a rolling sample regressions approach, whether, as Eeckhout (2004) proposed, the Pareto exponent in a standard Zipf equation is decreasing as more cities are added to the sample. The results are very conclusive: Eeckhout's hypothesis is satisfied for Brazil, Russia and South Africa, but for India and China there are non-negligible parts of the distribution where it is not fulfilled. We also test the fulfilment of Zipf's law: it holds in the upper tail of the five countries (except South Africa) but for the rest of the distribution the predominant outcome is rejection.

Keywords: Zipf exponent; Zipf's law; BRICS; rolling sample regressions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C2 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-29
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