ZIPF’S LAW: MAIN ISSUES IN EMPIRICAL WORK

Rafael González-Val

Region et Developpement, 2012, vol. 36, 147-164

Abstract: One of the stylised facts in Urban Economics is Zipf’s law, according to which city size distribution in many countries can be approximated by a Pareto distribution, whose exponent is equal to one. In this paper we point out the three main issues in any empirical work on city size distribution and Zipf’s law : city definition, sample size, and the choice of the estimator. We review the more recent developments, especially those related to the relationship between the geographical unit chosen and sample size, and the features of the different methods to estimate the Pareto exponent. We illustrate the arguments, providing empirical examples using actual data from the city size distribution in the United States.

Keywords: CITY SIZE DISTRIBUTION; ZIPF’S LAW (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C16 R00 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tou:journl:v:36:y:2012:p:147-164

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