The Pareto distribution is a continuous probability distribution. [[Zipf's law]], also sometimes called the [[zeta distribution]], is a discrete distribution, separating the values into a simple ranking. Both are a simple power law with a negative exponent, scaled so that their cumulative distributions equal 1. Zipf's can be derived from the Pareto distribution if the <math>x</math> values (incomes) are binned into <math>N</math> ranks so that the number of people in each bin follows a 1/rank pattern. The distribution is normalized by defining <math>x_m</math> so that <math>\alpha x_\mathrm{m}^\alpha = \frac{1}{H(N,\alpha-1)}</math> where <math>H(N,\alpha-1)</math> is the [[Harmonic number#Generalized harmonic numbers|generalized harmonic number]]. This makes Zipf's probability density function derivable from Pareto's. | The Pareto distribution is a continuous probability distribution. [[Zipf's law]], also sometimes called the [[zeta distribution]], is a discrete distribution, separating the values into a simple ranking. Both are a simple power law with a negative exponent, scaled so that their cumulative distributions equal 1. Zipf's can be derived from the Pareto distribution if the <math>x</math> values (incomes) are binned into <math>N</math> ranks so that the number of people in each bin follows a 1/rank pattern. The distribution is normalized by defining <math>x_m</math> so that <math>\alpha x_\mathrm{m}^\alpha = \frac{1}{H(N,\alpha-1)}</math> where <math>H(N,\alpha-1)</math> is the [[Harmonic number#Generalized harmonic numbers|generalized harmonic number]]. This makes Zipf's probability density function derivable from Pareto's. |