2007/04/24 by Damián H. Zanette, Damian H. Zanette, Zanette, Damian H.
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Data Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis #Spatial and Panel Data Analysis #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an) #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.data-an #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0704.3170
To appear in Advances in Complex Systems
arxiv created 2007/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2007/04/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We address the role of multiplicative stochastic processes in modeling the occurrence of power-law city size distributions. As an explanation of the result of Zipf's rank analysis, Simon's model is presented in a mathematically elementary way, with a thorough discussion of the involved hypotheses. Emphasis is put on the flexibility of the model, as to its possible extensions and the relaxation of some strong assumptions. We point out some open problems regarding the prediction of the detailed shape of Zipf's rank plots, which may be tackled by means of such extensions.