We develop a maximum relative entropy formalism to generate optimal approximations to probability distributions. The central results consist of (a) justifying the use of relative entropy as the uniquely natural criterion to select a preferred approximation from within a family of trial...

A non-parametric framework for testing the existence of aggregates is developed. The framework is based on the notion of the maximum entropy formalism which is applied to model the size distribution of firms. The theory, once presented, is applied to the US banking industry in order to test for...