Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/49914 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeiträge No. 2004/16
Publisher: 
Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Berlin
Abstract: 
In this paper, I provide a quantitative review of the empirical literature on Zipf's law for cities; the meta-analysis combines 515 estimates from 29 studies. I find that the combined estimate of the Zipf coefficient is significantly larger than 1.0. This finding implies that cities are on average more evenly distributed than suggested by (a strict interpretation of) Zipf's law. I also identify several features that account for differences across the individual point estimates.
Subjects: 
Zipf's law
size distribution of cities
rank size rule
meta-analysis
JEL: 
R12
R15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
387.89 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.