A test and modification of Zipf's hypothesis: the case of migration to Tehran

Farah Asna-Ashari, Ministry of Education, Iran

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of Zipf’s hypothesis in estimating immigration to Tehran from other provinces and then to determine whether the predictive power of Zipf’s hypothesis can be improved by adding additional variables. By the use of stepwise regression method we had two models. In the first model the only independent variable, density, explains 0.75 percent of the variation in the dependent variable. In the second model another variable was added (urbanization). Over eighty percent of the variation in migration to Tehran was explained by these two variables; density and urbanization.