Journal of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Gazi University, vol.22, no.1, pp.33-38, 2007 (Scopus)
The observed strong relationship between the urban populations and their ranks has long been an interesting subject. This relationship can be used to test whether a national urban hierarchical system develops evenly or unevenly. In this study, utilizing urban populations in Turkey for the years 1985, 1990 and 2000, an econometric study was carried out to analyze the historical development of the population distribution within Turkish urban system. The results show that the population within the Turkish urban system and thus the structure of the urban system has profoundly gone under an uneven development after 1985, deviating from Zipf's law. The study argues that post 1985 liberal economic policies and increasing integration with the world economy have played a significant role in these changes.