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Are the log-growth rates of city sizes distributed normally? Empirical evidence for the USA

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  • Arturo Ramos

    (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Abstract

We have studied the log-growth population rate distributions of the US incorporated places (resp., all places) for the period 1990–2000 (resp. 2000–2010) and the recently constructed US City Clustering Algorithm (CCA) population data in the period 1991–2000. Also, we have considered the samples of US incorporated places that are one decade old in 1910, five decades old in 1950 and nine decades old in 1990. An excellent parametric description of these log-growth rates is obtained by means of a newly introduced distribution called “double-mixture exponential Generalized Beta 2 (dmeGB2).” The normal distribution is not the one empirically observed for the same data sets.

Suggested Citation

  • Arturo Ramos, 2017. "Are the log-growth rates of city sizes distributed normally? Empirical evidence for the USA," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 1109-1123, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:53:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s00181-016-1147-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-016-1147-8
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    Cited by:

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    3. Massing, Till & Puente-Ajovín, Miguel & Ramos, Arturo, 2020. "On the parametric description of log-growth rates of cities’ sizes of four European countries and the USA," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 551(C).
    4. Arturo Ramos & Till Massing & Atushi Ishikawa & Shouji Fujimoto & Takayuki Mizuno, 2023. "Composite distributions in the social sciences: A comparative empirical study of firms' sales distribution for France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain," Papers 2301.09438, arXiv.org.
    5. Ramos, Arturo, 2019. "Addenda to “Are the log-growth rates of city sizes distributed normally? Empirical evidence for the USA [Empir. Econ. (2017) 53:1109-1123]”," MPRA Paper 93032, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Arturo, Ramos, 2019. "Have the log-population processes stationary and independent increments? Empirical evidence for Italy, Spain and the USA along more than a century," MPRA Paper 93562, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban log-growth rates distribution; Exponential distribution; Exponential Generalized Beta 2 distribution; US population log-growth rates;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C46 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Specific Distributions
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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