Description
An interesting application of Benford's and Zipf's Laws to fraudulent Covid-19 data was published recently on the peer-reviewed PLOS-ONE website. The study, t…
Summary
- An interesting application of Benford's and Zipf's Laws to fraudulent Covid-19 data was published recently on the peer-reviewed PLOS-ONE website.
- Practical applications include analysis of data that has large steps down from the top, like the drop from executive salaries to management salaries or the number of books ales by top authors (like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling) compared to lesser know authors.
- Were countries deliberately dampening figures in order to keep tourism alive?
- However, if a country's figures largely follow Zipf's law with a few deviations on the sub-national level, that might indicate fraud by regional authorities.