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Modified Benford’s law for two-exponent distributions

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Abstract

Motivated by applications in scientometrics, we study the occurrence of first significant digits in Lavalette distribution and in double Pareto distribution. We obtain modifications of Benford’s law. When the exponents are small, significant deviations to Benford’s law are observed; when the exponents are large, the two distributions conform with Benford’s law. Both analytical and numerical results are presented. Scientometric data can fairly well be described by the modifications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung-li, Taiwan

    Hsiang-chi Tseng, Wei-neng Huang & Ding-wei Huang

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  1. Hsiang-chi Tseng
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  2. Wei-neng Huang
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  3. Ding-wei Huang
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Correspondence to Ding-wei Huang.

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Tseng, Hc., Huang, Wn. & Huang, Dw. Modified Benford’s law for two-exponent distributions. Scientometrics 110, 1403–1413 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2217-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2217-6

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