1) The shares of income received by different sections of the community. The functional distribution of incomes refers to the shares of income derived from the services of labour, land, and capital; personal income distribution refers to the relative number of personal incomes of various sizes.

2) The process of moving goods and services from producers to final consumers, via a network of wholesalers and retail shops. ‘The distributive trades’ refers to workers in this sector.

3) A function showing the probability of various possible outcomes of a stochastic process.

See also:

frequency distribution, conditional distribution, continuous distribution, discrete distribution, frequency distribution, log-normal distribution, normal distribution, symmetrical distribution, and uniform distribution

• base period
• base rate
• base-weighted index
• base year
• basic rate
• basis point
• batch production
• Bayesian statistics
• BBB
• BCCI
• BEA
• bear
• bearer bond
• bearer security
• bear market
• before-tax income
• beggar-my-neighbour policy
• behavioural theories of the firm
• bell curve
• below-the-line
• benefit
• benefit-cost analysis
• benefit principle
• benefits
• benefits in kind