Statistical Size Distributions in
Economics and Actuarial Sciences

Statistical Size Distributions in
Economics and Actuarial Sciences

Statistical Size Distributions in
Economics and Actuarial Sciences

This book is devoted to the parametric statistical distributions of economic size
phenomena of various types—a subject that has been explored in both statistical and
economic literature for over 100 years since the publication of V. Pareto’s famous
breakthrough volume Cours d’e´conomie politique in 1897. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first collection that systematically investigates various
parametric models—a more respectful term for distributions—dealing with income,
wealth, and related notions. Our aim is marshaling and knitting together the
immense body of information scattered in diverse sources in at least eight
languages. We present empirical studies from all continents, spanning a period of
more than 100 years.
We realize that a useful book on this subject matter should be interesting, a
task that appears to be, in T. S. Eliot’s words, “not one of the least difficult.” We
have tried to avoid reducing our exposition to a box of disconnected facts
or to an information storage or retrieval system. We also tried to avoid easy
armchair research that involves computerized records and heavy reliance on the
Web.

CHRISTIAN KLEIBER