IDENTIFYING URBAN TURNAROUND IN HUNGARY

Abstract

Changing levels of population concentration in the Hungarian urban system for the period 1870-1 980 are investigated to test for the occurrence of urban turnaround: the switch in overall growth dynamics from agglomeration to deglomeration. The analysis, which uses a rank-size model "expanded" into quadratics of time to account for nonlinear "drift" in the parameter estimates, indicates that the Hungarian urban system experienced predominantly agglomerative trends until the mid-1970s; afterwards, deglomerative trends dominated.