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Cited by 435

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Power Laws in Economics: An Introduction

Open access
Gabaix, Xavier·2016·Journal of Economic Perspectives
DOI 10.1257/jep.30.1.185
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Abstract

Many of the insights of economics seem to be qualitative, with many fewer reliable quantitative laws. However a series of power laws in economics do count as true and nontrivial quantitative laws—and they are not only established empirically, but also understood theoretically. I will start by providing several illustrations of empirical power laws having to do with patterns involving cities, firms, and the stock market. I summarize some of the theoretical explanations that have been proposed. I suggest that power laws help us explain many economic phenomena, including aggregate economic fluctuations. I hope to clarify why power laws are so special, and to demonstrate their utility. In conclusion, I list some power-law-related economic enigmas that demand further exploration. A formal definition may be useful.

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Metadata

Authors
Gabaix, X.
Venue
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Publisher
American Economic Association
Published
2016-02-01
Volume
30
Issue
1
Pages
185-206
ISSN
0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1257/jep.30.1.185
OpenAlex
W2261150581
Cited by
435
References
80
FWCI
68.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Power Laws in Economics: An Introduction. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1257/jep.30.1.185
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Gabaix, X. (2016). Power Laws in Economics: An Introduction. Journal of Economic Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.30.1.185

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.