The end of a paradigm: is Zipf’s law universal?

It is largely accepted among geographers and economists that the City Size Distribution (CSD) is well described by a power law, i.e., Zipf’s law. This opinion is shared by this community in a manner it could be treated as a paradigm. In reality, however, Zipf’s law is not always observed (even as an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geographical systems 2011-03, Vol.13 (1), p.87-100
Main Authors: Benguigui, L., Blumenfeld-Lieberthal, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Approximation
Case studies
Cities
Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Critical phenomena
Econometrics
Economics
Economics and Finance
Economists
Geographical Information Systems/Cartography
Histograms
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Laws, regulations and rules
Original Article
Pareto optimum
Physics
Regional/Spatial Science
Smart growth
Studies
Urban Economics
Urbanization
Zipf's Law
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Summary:It is largely accepted among geographers and economists that the City Size Distribution (CSD) is well described by a power law, i.e., Zipf’s law. This opinion is shared by this community in a manner it could be treated as a paradigm. In reality, however, Zipf’s law is not always observed (even as an approximation), and we prefer to adopt a classification of the CSD into three classes. In this work, we present the characteristics of these classes and give some examples for them. We use the Israeli system of cities as an interesting case study in which the same ensemble of cities passes from one class to another. We relate this change to the urbanization process that occurred in Israel from the 1960s onwards.
ISSN:1435-5930
1435-5949
DOI:10.1007/s10109-010-0132-6