Consider the following statements about Weber's Theory of Industrial Location: 1. Weber identified transport cost as the primary factor in industrial location. 2. The isodapane is a line connecting all points with equal additional transport cost over the minimum. 3. Weber argued that labour cost advantages can only pull industry away from the transport cost minimum if they exceed the additional transport costs. 4. Agglomeration economies always pull industries toward the transport cost minimum. Which of the above statements are correct?

Explanation

Alfred Weber's industrial location model begins with the search for the least-cost site, with transport cost treated as the primary locational factor because raw materials must move to the plant and finished goods must move to the market. After that transport-cost minimum is identified, Weber tests whether other forces can justify moving away from it. An isodapane helps with this test by joining points that carry the same additional cost above the minimum. Labour can pull an industry away only when the saving in labour cost per unit is greater than the extra transport cost created by the move. Agglomeration is also a pull factor, but it pulls towards industrial clusters, not necessarily towards the transport-cost minimum.

Why the other options are wrong

• (B) It includes statement 4, but agglomeration economies may pull industry towards a cluster that does not coincide with the transport-cost minimum.
• (C) It omits statement 1 even though Weber's model treats transport cost as the primary locational factor, and it also includes the incorrect statement 4.
• (D) It treats all four statements as correct, although statement 4 wrongly says agglomeration always pulls industries towards the transport-cost minimum.

Concept

This tests Weber's least-cost industrial location theory, especially the relationship between transport cost, labour-cost deviation and agglomeration. It recurs in RAS because location theories are a standard bridge between economic geography concepts and applied industrial geography.

Source

• Library of Congress, Economic Geography by Andrew Wood and Susan Roberts

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