The size distribution of 'cities' delineated with a network theory‐based method and mobile phone GPS data. (12th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fujishima, Shota; Fujiwara, Naoya; Akiyama, Yuki; Shibasaki, Ryosuke; Sakuramachi, Ritsu
• Is Part Of: International journal of economic theory. Volume 16:Number 1(2020:Mar.)
• Page Start: 38
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2020-02-12
• Subjects: city‐size distribution -- community detection -- GPS data -- jump diffusion process -- mixture of distributions -- power law; Economics -- Periodicals; 330.01
• DOI: 10.1111/ijet.12254
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-7355

Abstract

Abstract: We delineate "cities" independent of administrative boundaries in Japan by using a network theory‐based method and GPS‐based human mobility data. We divide the country into approximately 1 × 1 km 2 cells and detect the partition of cells that is optimal from the perspective of information theory. The resulting groups of cells are specified as cities. We find that the combination of two lognormal distributions better fits the city‐size distribution than a distribution with a Pareto upper tail. Moreover, we show that a jump diffusion process is the stochastic process of the city population underlying such a distribution.