Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
971283 Journal of Urban Economics 2010 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

Using un-truncated settlement size data from eight countries, we show that the “double Pareto lognormal” (DPLN) distribution provides a better fit to actual city sizes than the simple lognormal (LN) distribution. The DPLN has a lognormal body and features a power law in both the lower and the upper tail. It emerges in the steady-state of a stochastic urban growth process with random city formation. Our findings reconcile a recent debate on the Zipfian rank-size rule for city sizes.

Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities Economics, Econometrics and Finance Economics and Econometrics
Authors
, , ,