Gibrat's Law for (All) Cities: Comment

Author: Levy, Moshe

Source: The American Economic Review, Volume 99, Number 4, September 2009 , pp. 1672-1675(4)

Publisher: American Economic Association

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Abstract:

Jan Eeckhout (2004) reports that the empirical city size distribution is lognormal, consistent with Gibrat's Law. We show that for the top 0.6 percent of the largest cities, the empirical distribution is dramatically different from the lognormal, and follows a power law. This top part is extremely important as it accounts for more than 23 percent of the population. The empirical hybrid lognormal-power-law distribution revealed may be characteristic of other key distributions, such as the wealth distribution and the income distribution. This distribution is not consistent with a simple Gibrat proportionate effect process, and its origin presents a puzzle yet to be answered.

Document Type: Short communication

DOI: 10.1257/aer.99.4.1672

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