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Zipf's Law and #econtwitter

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Abstract

This letter investigates the distribution of Twitter followers for the top 521 economists and for the top 5000 Twitter users, testing whether each distribution follows a power law. We find strong evidence for a power law, both for economists and for Twitter more generally. However, the inequality in the distribution of followers is greater among economists, which has potentially negative implications for the quality of economic debate on Twitter.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael P Cameron, 2022. "Zipf's Law and #econtwitter," Working Papers in Economics 22/08, University of Waikato.
    • Handle: RePEc:wai:econwp:22/08
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    File URL: https://repec.its.waikato.ac.nz/wai/econwp/2208.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2008. "Why has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 49-100.
    2. Xavier Gabaix & Rustam Ibragimov, 2011. "Rank - 1 / 2: A Simple Way to Improve the OLS Estimation of Tail Exponents," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 24-39, January.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social media; Zipf's Law; Power Law; Pareto distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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