Benford’s Law as an Indicator of Fraud in Economics

Autor:	Karl-Heinz Tödter
Rok vydání:	2009
Předmět:	Benford's law Economics and Econometrics Economic research 050208 finance 0502 economics and business 05 social sciences Statistics Econometrics Economics Fraudulent Data 050207 economics Intuition
Zdroj:	German Economic Review. 10:339-351
ISSN:	1468-0475 1465-6485
DOI:	10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00475.x
Popis:	Contrary to intuition, first digits of randomly selected data are not uniformly distributed but follow a logarithmically declining pattern, known as Benford’s law. This law is increasingly used as a ‘doping check’ for detecting fraudulent data in business and administration. Benford’s law also applies to regression coefficients and standard errors in empirical economics. This article reviews Benford’s law and examines its potential as an indicator of fraud in economic research. Evidence from a sample of recently published articles shows that a surprisingly large proportion of first digits, but not of second digits, contradicts Benford’s law.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::a03349f117a9b249650a4d10c28b7029 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00475.x Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text