Do power laws imply self-regulation?

Robert P. Freckleton () and William J. Sutherland
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Robert P. Freckleton: University of Oxford
William J. Sutherland: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia

Nature, 2001, vol. 413, issue 6854, 382-382

Abstract: Abstract Negative feedback leading to self-regulatory behaviour is an important phenomenon that affects time-series fluctuations in a range of systems and is critical in forecasting and management, particularly when complex dynamics are possible. Smethurst and Williams1 argue that the lengths of waiting-lists to see hospital consultants are self-regulating, on the grounds that the relative changes in the size of waiting-lists follow a power law, with large changes being relatively rare compared with small ones. Here we show that similar power laws can also be obtained from unregulated, random time series. The existence of a power law that governs fluctuations in time series is not sufficient to prove the existence of self-regulatory behaviour, and we argue that a more sophisticated analysis is required.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1038/35096646

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