Axtell RL "Zipf distribution of US firm sizes" SCIENCE 293 (5536): 1818-1820 SEP 7 2001

[Eugene Garfield]

R.L Axtell : raxtell at brookings.edu


TITLE     :  Zipf distribution of US firm sizes
AUTHOR    :  Axtell RL
JOURNAL   : SCIENCE 293 (5536): 1818-1820 SEP 7 2001

 Document type: Article     Language: English     Cited References: 26
Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
Analyses of firm sizes have historically used data that included limited
samples of small firms, data typically described by
lognormal distributions. Using data on the entire population of tax-paying
firms in the United States, I show here that the Zipf distribution
characterizes firm sizes: the probability a firm is larger than size s is
inversely proportional to s. These results hold for data from multiple years
and for various definitions of firm size.

KeyWords Plus:
STABLE INTERMITTENT FLUCTUATIONS, POWER-LAW DISTRIBUTIONS, SCALING BEHAVIOR,
GROWTH,
SYSTEMS

Addresses:
Axtell RL, Brookings Inst, Ctr Social & Econ Dynam, 1775 Massachusetts Ave
NW, Washington, DC 20036 USA
Brookings Inst, Ctr Social & Econ Dynam, Washington, DC 20036 USA

Publisher:
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE, WASHINGTON

IDS Number:
470WN

ISSN:
0036-8075
Cited Author            Cited Work                Volume      Page      Year

 ACS Z                 ARE SMALL FIRMS IMPO                            1999
 ACS Z                 INNOVATION SMALL FIR                            1990
 AMARAL LAN            J PHYS I                       7       621      1997
 AXTELL RL             UNPUB
 BIHAM O               PHYS REV E A                  58      1352      1998
 BRESLAU L             P IEEE INFOCOM                 1       126      1999
 BROWN C               J POLIT ECON                  97      1027      1989
 BURGOS JD             BIOSYSTEMS                    39       227      1996
 GABAIX X              Q J ECON                     114       739      1999
 GELLMANN M            QUARK JAGUAR                            92      1994
 GIBRAT R              INEGALITIES EC APPL                             1931
 HART PE               ECON J                       106      1242      1996
 HART PE               J ROYAL STATISTICA A         119       150      1956
 IJIRI Y               SKEW DISTRIBUTIONS S                            1977
 JOHNSON NL            CONTINUOUS UNIVARIAT                            1994
 KESTEN H              ACTA MATH                    131       207      1973
 MALCAI O              PHYS REV E A                  60      1299      1999
 MARSILI M             PHYS REV LETT                 80      2741      1998
 RAMSDEN JJ            PHYSICA A                    277       220      2000
 STANLEY MHR           ECON LETT                     49       453      1995
 STANLEY MHR           NATURE                       379       804      1996
 STEINDL J             RANDOM PROCESSES GRO                            1965
 SUTTON J              J ECON LIT                    35        40      1997
 TAKAYASU H            FRACTALS                       6        67      1998
 WATANABE MS           PHYS REV E B                  53      4187      1996
 ZIPF GK               HUMAN BEHAV PRINCIPL



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Eugene Garfield, Ph.D. E-mail: mailto:garfield at codex.cis.upenn.edu Web site:
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