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On the parametric description of the French, German, Italian and Spanish city size distributions

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  • Puente-Ajovin, Miguel
  • Ramos, Arturo

Abstract

We study the parametric description of the city size distribution of four European countries: France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The parametric models used are the lognormal, the double Pareto lognormal, the normal-Box-Cox (defined in this paper) and the threshold double Pareto Singh--Maddala (introduced in a cited recent paper when studying US city size). The results are quite regular. The preferred model is always the threshold double Pareto Singh--Maddala in the four countries. However, the dPln is not rejected always for the case of France, and in the case of Italy the dPln is the runner-up distribution. These results complement those obtained in a cited recent paper which study the US places' city size distribution.

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  • Puente-Ajovin, Miguel & Ramos, Arturo, 2014. "On the parametric description of the French, German, Italian and Spanish city size distributions," MPRA Paper 55285, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:55285
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    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Xiangdong & Yuan, Ouyang & Xu, Zhao & Yin, Yanhui & Liu, Qian & Wu, Ling, 2021. "Did Zipf's Law hold for Chinese cities and why? Evidence from multi-source data," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Miguel Puente-Ajovín & Arturo Ramos & Fernando Sanz-Gracia, 2020. "Is there a universal parametric city size distribution? Empirical evidence for 70 countries," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(3), pages 727-741, December.
    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. Akhundjanov, Sherzod B. & Devadoss, Stephen & Luckstead, Jeff, 2017. "Size distribution of national CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 182-193.
    5. Luckstead, Jeff & Devadoss, Stephen, 2017. "Pareto tails and lognormal body of US cities size distribution," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 465(C), pages 573-578.
    6. Puente-Ajovin, Miguel & Ramos, Arturo, 2015. "An improvement over the normal distribution for log-growth rates of city sizes: Empirical evidence for France, Germany, Italy and Spain," MPRA Paper 67471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Calderín-Ojeda, Enrique, 2016. "The distribution of all French communes: A composite parametric approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 450(C), pages 385-394.
    8. 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.
    9. Zora Živanović & Branka Tošić & Teodora Nikolić & Dragica Gatarić, 2019. "Urban System in Serbia—The Factor in the Planning of Balanced Regional Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-19, August.
    10. Gualandi, Stefano & Toscani, Giuseppe, 2019. "Size distribution of cities: A kinetic explanation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 221-234.
    11. Luckstead, Jeff & Devadoss, Stephen & Danforth, Diana, 2017. "The size distributions of all Indian cities," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 474(C), pages 237-249.
    12. Su, Hsuan-Li, 2020. "On the city size distribution: A finite mixture interpretation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    13. Ramos, Arturo & Sanz-Gracia, Fernando, 2015. "US city size distribution revisited: Theory and empirical evidence," MPRA Paper 64051, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    European city size distributions; population thresholds; lower and upper tails; new statistical distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C16 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Econometric and Statistical Methods; Specific Distributions
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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