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On the irreconcilability of Pareto and Gibrat laws

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  • Bottazzi, Giulio

Abstract

If business firms face a multiplicative growth process in which their growth rates are Laplace distributed and independent from their sizes, the size cannot be distributed according to a stationary Pareto distribution. Recent contributions, using formal arguments, seem to contrast with these statements. We prove that the proposed formal results are wrong.

Suggested Citation

  • Bottazzi, Giulio, 2009. "On the irreconcilability of Pareto and Gibrat laws," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(7), pages 1133-1136.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:7:p:1133-1136
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2008.12.031
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    Cited by:

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    2. Davide Provenzano, 2017. "On the World Distribution of Income," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 189-196, March.
    3. Ishikawa, Atushi, 2007. "The uniqueness of firm size distribution function from tent-shaped growth rate distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 383(1), pages 79-84.
    4. Junho Na & Jeong-dong Lee & Chulwoo Baek, 2017. "Is the service sector different in size heterogeneity?," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(1), pages 95-120, April.
    5. Cirillo, Pasquale, 2010. "An analysis of the size distribution of Italian firms by age," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(3), pages 459-466.
    6. Xu, Yan & Wang, Yougui & Tao, Xiaobo & Ližbetinová, Lenka, 2017. "Evidence of Chinese income dynamics and its effects on income scaling law," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 487(C), pages 143-152.

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