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Zipf's law strikes again: the case of tourism

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  • Mehmet A. Ulubaşoğlu
  • Bharat R. Hazari

Abstract

This paper examines the applicability of Zipf's law to tourism. It is established that a variation of this law holds in this case--a rank-size rule with concavity. Due to this non-linearity, it is shown that a spline regression provides an extremely convenient tool for predicting tourist arrivals in a country. The concavity is explained by appealing to random growth theory (lognormal distribution; Gibrat's law) and locational fundamentals. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

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  • Mehmet A. Ulubaşoğlu & Bharat R. Hazari, 2004. "Zipf's law strikes again: the case of tourism," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 459-472, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:4:y:2004:i:4:p:459-472
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jnlecg/lbh030
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    Cited by:

    1. Jang C. Jin, 2009. "Asian University Rankings in International and Development Economics: An Application of Zipf's Law," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 137-143, February.
    2. Maritza Elizabeth Bermeo Velasquez & Jinhwan Oh, 2013. "What determines international tourist arrivals to Peru? A gravity approach," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 357-369, December.
    3. Jang C. Jin, 2009. "Publications in mathematical economics and econometrics: ranking of Asian universities and an application of Zipf's law," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 23(2), pages 116-122, November.
    4. Jang Jin & Eden Yu, 2011. "World Ranking of Real Estate Research: Recent Changes in School Competitiveness and Research Institutions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 229-246, February.
    5. Koo, Tay T.R. & Lau, Pong-Lung, 2019. "Impact of aviation on spatial distribution of tourism: An experiment," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Olmedo, Elena & Mateos, Ruth, 2015. "Quantitative characterization of chaordic tourist destination," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 115-126.
    7. Yongrui Guo & Jie Zhang & Honglei Zhang, 2016. "Rank–size distribution and spatio-temporal dynamics of tourist flows to China’s cities," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(3), pages 451-465, June.
    8. Davide Provenzano, 2014. "Power laws and the market structure of tourism industry," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1055-1066, November.
    9. Michał Brzeziński, 2013. "Robust estimation of the Pareto index: A Monte Carlo Analysis," Working Papers 2013-32, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.

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