ABSTRACT
In economics, a classical distinction identifies firms and individuals as the units of analysis, to be treated at the macro and micro levels. When firms are taken in aggregate, the lognormal frequently fits their distribution by size measured as number of employees or asset values. The main applications of the lognormal in economics relate to the distribution of firms by size and to income earners by the amount they earn. The lognormality of prices and price changes has been investigated empirically but the evidence is relatively limited compared to the extensive use of the lognormal in financial theory, in turn leading to practical applications. If firms in an industry are lognormally distributed by size, a company selling to that industry might expect sales to follow the same pattern, given that its customer accounts were a random sample of all firms in the buying industry. There are tantalizing indications that the lognormal represents numerous aspects of economic life.
