TY - JOUR
T1 - Departures from Gibrat's law, discontinuities and city size distributions
AU - Garmestani, Ahjond S.
AU - Allen, Craig R.
AU - Gallagher, Colin M.
AU - Mittelstaedt, John D.
PY - 2007/9
Y1 - 2007/9
N2 - Cities are complex, self-organising, evolving systems and the emergent patterns they manifest provide insight into the dynamic processes in urban systems. This article analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-eastern region of the US for the years 1860-1990. It determines if the distributions are clustered into size classes and documents changes in the pattern of size classes over time. A statistical hypothesis test was also performed to detect dependence between city size and growth using discrete probability calculations under the assumption of Gibrat's law. The city size distributions for the south-eastern region of the US were discontinuous, with cities clustering into distinct size classes. The analysis also identified departures from Gibrat's law, indicating variable growth rates at different scales.
AB - Cities are complex, self-organising, evolving systems and the emergent patterns they manifest provide insight into the dynamic processes in urban systems. This article analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-eastern region of the US for the years 1860-1990. It determines if the distributions are clustered into size classes and documents changes in the pattern of size classes over time. A statistical hypothesis test was also performed to detect dependence between city size and growth using discrete probability calculations under the assumption of Gibrat's law. The city size distributions for the south-eastern region of the US were discontinuous, with cities clustering into distinct size classes. The analysis also identified departures from Gibrat's law, indicating variable growth rates at different scales.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34548791212&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=34548791212&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00420980701471935
DO - 10.1080/00420980701471935
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34548791212
SN - 0042-0980
VL - 44
SP - 1997
EP - 2007
JO - Urban Studies
JF - Urban Studies
IS - 10
ER -