Ioannides YM, Overman HG "Zipf's law for cities: an empirical examination" REGIONAL SCIENCE AND URBAN ECONOMICS 33 (2): 127-137 MAR 2003

[Eugene Garfield]

Yannis M. Ioannides : yioannid at tufts.edu
Henry G. Overman    : h.g.overman at lse.ac.uk



TITLE    Zipf's law for cities: an empirical examination
AUTHORS  Ioannides YM, Overman HG
JOURNAL  REGIONAL SCIENCE AND URBAN ECONOMICS 33 (2): 127-137 MAR 2003

 Document type: Article    Language: English
 Cited References: 10      Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
We use data for metro areas in the United States, from the US Census for
1900-1990, to test the validity of Zipf's Law for cities. Previous
investigations are restricted to regressions of log size against log rank.
In contrast, we use a nonparametric procedure to estimate Gibrat's Law for
city growth processes as time-varying geometric Brownian motion and to
calculate local Zipf exponents from the mean and variance of city growth
rates. Despite variation in growth rates as a function of city size,
Gibrat's Law does hold. The local Zipf exponents are broadly consistent with
Zipf's Law. Deviations from Zipf's Law are easily explained by
deviations from Gibrat's Law. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights
reserved.

Author Keywords:
Zipf's Law, Gibrat's Law, urban growth, estimation of Brownian motion

KeyWords Plus:
US

Addresses:
Ioannides YM, Tufts Univ, Dept Econ, Medford, MA 02155 USA
Tufts Univ, Dept Econ, Medford, MA 02155 USA
Univ London London Sch Econ & Polit Sci, Dept Geog & Environm, London WC2A
2AE, England

Publisher:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, AMSTERDAM

IDS Number:
648PK

ISSN:
0166-0462

 Cited Author            Cited Work                Volume      Page  Year

 AUERBACH F            PETERMANS MITTEILUNG          59        74      1913
 BLACK D               URBAN EVOLUTION USA                             1999
 DOBKINS LH            EC CITIES                              217      2000
 DOBKINS LH            REG SCI URBAN ECON            31       701      2001
 GABAIX X              Q J ECON                     114       739      1999
 HARDLE W              APPL NONPARAMETRIC R                            1990
 IOANNIDES YM          SPATIAL EVOLUTION US                            1999
 OVERMAN HG            J URBAN ECON                  49       543      2001
 SILVERMAN BW          DENSITY ESTIMATION S                            1986
 ZIPF G                HUMAN BEHAV PRINCIPL                            1949