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A Scale-Free Transportation Network Explains the City-Size Distribution

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  • Marcus Berliant
  • Hiroki Watanabe

Abstract

Zipf's law is one of the best-known empirical regularities of the city-size distribution. There is extensive research on the subject, where each city is treated symmetrically in terms of the cost of transactions with other cities. Recent developments in network theory facilitate the examination of an asymmetric transport network. Under the scale-free transport network framework, the chance of observing extremes becomes higher than the Gaussian distribution predicts and therefore it explains the emergence of large clusters. City-size distributions share the same pattern. This paper proposes a way to incorporate network structure into urban economic models and explains the city-size distribution as a result of transport cost between cities. Keywords: Zipf's law, city-size distribution, scale-free network JEL classification: R12, R40

Suggested Citation

  • Marcus Berliant & Hiroki Watanabe, 2012. "A Scale-Free Transportation Network Explains the City-Size Distribution," ERSA conference papers ersa12p601, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p601
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    Cited by:

    1. Watanabe, Axel, 2020. "The Size Distribution of Cities with Distance-Bound Households," MPRA Paper 99746, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Wei Zhu & Ding Ma & Zhigang Zhao & Renzhong Guo, 2020. "Investigating the Complexity of Spatial Interactions between Different Administrative Units in China Using Flickr Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-12, November.
    3. P. Nijkamp & A. Reggiani, 2012. "Did Zipf Anticipate Socio-Economic Spatial Networks?," Working Papers wp816, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    4. Ahmed Saber Mahmud, 2021. "How do All Roads Lead to Rome? The Story of Transportation Network Inducing Agglomeration," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 419-464, June.
    5. Ahmed Saber Mahmud, 2022. "Demand-pull versus cost-push: monocentric equilibrium in a spatial network," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(2), pages 455-485, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    zipf's law; city-size distribution; scale-free network jel classification: r12; r40;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General

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