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Spurious Zipf's Law

Author

Listed:
  • Juan-Carlos Candeal
  • Antonio Montañés
  • Irene Olloqui

Abstract

This paper shows that the acceptance of the Zipf's Law may sometimes be the result of a spurious artifact. By way of some Monte Carlo exercises we provide evidence in favour of the fact that the Zipf's law can be spuriously accepted when the variable being studied is generated by a random distribution. This result is explained by taking account the, so-called, spurious detrending problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan-Carlos Candeal & Antonio Montañés & Irene Olloqui, 2003. "Spurious Zipf's Law," ERSA conference papers ersa03p67, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa03p67
    as

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    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa03/cdrom/papers/67.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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