Company size distribution in different countries

Jeremy Ramsden and Gy. Kiss-Haypál

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2000, vol. 277, issue 1, 220-227

Abstract: The distribution of companies in a country, ranked in order of size (annual net revenue) s, follows the simplified canonical law sr∼(r+ρ)−1/θ remarkably well, where r is the rank, and θ and ρ are the parameters of the distribution. These parameters have been determined for 20 countries in America, Asia and Europe. Significant differences between countries are found. Neither θ nor ρ appears to correlate well with traditional economic indicators; indeed some countries often thought to be economically and politically, but not necessarily socially, similar show surprising differences, suggesting that wealth and prosperity are influenced by hidden layers hitherto inaccessible through standard economic theory.

Keywords: Annual revenue; Company size; Simplified canonical law; Zipf law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:277:y:2000:i:1:p:220-227

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(99)00572-5

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