Zipfs Law for Cities: An Empirical Examination

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Zipfs Law for Cities: An Empirical Examination

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H G Overman
Y Ioannides

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Abstract

We use data for metro areas in the United States, from the US Census for 1900 – 1990, to test the validity of Zipf’s Law for cities. Previous investigations are restricted to regressions of log size against log rank. In contrast, we use a nonparametric procedure to calculate local Zipf exponents from the mean and variance of city growth rates. This also allows us to test for the validity of Gibrat’s Law for city growth processes. Despite variation in growth rates as a function of city size, Gibrat’s Law does hold. In addition the local Zipf exponents are broadly consistent with Zipf’s Law. Deviations from Zipf’s Law are easily explained by deviations from Gibrat’s Law.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number 0484.

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Date of creation: Nov 2000
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:0484

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Article
- Ioannides, Yannis M. & Overman, Henry G., 2003. "Zipf's law for cities: an empirical examination," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 127-137, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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Yannis M. Ioannides & Henry G. Overman, 1999. "Cross-Sectional Evolution of the U.S. City Size Distribution," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9926, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- H G Overman & Y Ioannides, 2000. "Cross Sectional Evolution of the US City Size Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers 0483, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
- Overman, Henry G. & Ioannides, Yannis M., 2001. "Cross-Sectional Evolution of the U.S. City Size Distribution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 543-566, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Linda Harris Dobkins & Yannis M. Ioannides, 1999. "Dynamic Evolution of the U.S. City Size Distribution," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9916, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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