Company size distribution in different countries

The distribution of companies in a country, ranked in order of size (annual net revenue) s, follows the simplified canonical law s r∼(r+ρ) −1/θ remarkably well, where r is the rank, and θ and ρ are the parameters of the distribution. These parameters have been determined for 20 countries in America,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica A 2000-03, Vol.277 (1), p.220-227
Main Authors: Ramsden, J.J., Kiss-Haypál, Gy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annual revenue
Company size
Simplified canonical law
Zipf law
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Summary:The distribution of companies in a country, ranked in order of size (annual net revenue) s, follows the simplified canonical law s r∼(r+ρ) −1/θ remarkably well, where r is the rank, and θ and ρ are the parameters of the distribution. These parameters have been determined for 20 countries in America, Asia and Europe. Significant differences between countries are found. Neither θ nor ρ appears to correlate well with traditional economic indicators; indeed some countries often thought to be economically and politically, but not necessarily socially, similar show surprising differences, suggesting that wealth and prosperity are influenced by hidden layers hitherto inaccessible through standard economic theory.
ISSN:0378-4371
1873-2119
DOI:10.1016/S0378-4371(99)00572-5