An Introduction to Benford's Law

Author:

Berger Arno,Hill Theodore P.

Abstract

This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of Benford's law, the surprising logarithmic distribution of significant digits discovered in the late nineteenth century. Establishing the mathematical and statistical principles that underpin this intriguing phenomenon, the text combines up-to-date theoretical results with overviews of the law's colorful history, rapidly growing body of empirical evidence, and wide range of applications. The book begins with basic facts about significant digits, Benford functions, sequences, and random variables, including tools from the theory of uniform distribution. After introducing the scale-, base-, and sum-invariance characterizations of the law, the book develops the significant-digit properties of both deterministic and stochastic processes, such as iterations of functions, powers of matrices, differential equations, and products, powers, and mixtures of random variables. Two concluding chapters survey the finitely additive theory and the flourishing applications of Benford's law. Carefully selected diagrams, tables, and close to 150 examples illuminate the main concepts throughout. The book includes many open problems, in addition to dozens of new basic theorems and all the main references. A distinguishing feature is the emphasis on the surprising ubiquity and robustness of the significant-digit law. The book can serve as both a primary reference and a basis for seminars and courses.

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Cited by 19 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Some new invariant sum tests and MAD tests for the assessment of Benford’s law;Computational Statistics;2024-02-13

2. How Many Digits are Needed?;Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability;2024-02-08

3. Self-similarity and the maximum entropy principle in the genetic code;Theory in Biosciences;2023-07-04

4. Applying Benford’s law to detect earnings management;Journal of Economics and Management;2023

5. Benford’s Law and Music Note Frequencies;Mathematics and Computation in Music;2022

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