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 model seeks the site with the lowest total cost. Transport cost comes first because raw materials have to reach the plant and finished goods have to reach the market. Once the transport-cost minimum is known, the model asks whether another force justifies a different site. An isodapane joins points with the same additional transport cost above that minimum. Labour can draw an industry away when the saving in labour cost per unit exceeds the extra transport cost. Agglomeration can also draw firms towards an industrial cluster, but that cluster need not be at the transport-cost minimum.

Why the other options are wrong

• (B) It accepts the claim that agglomeration always pulls industry towards the transport-cost minimum. In Weber's model, agglomeration may instead favour a cluster elsewhere.
• (C) It leaves out transport cost as the primary locational factor and also accepts the incorrect claim that agglomeration always pulls industry towards the transport-cost minimum.
• (D) It accepts every claim, including the incorrect claim that agglomeration always draws industries towards the transport-cost minimum.

Concept

This item examines Weber's least-cost theory of industrial location, especially the relationship among transport cost, labour-cost deviation and agglomeration. The topic recurs in RAS because it connects core ideas in economic geography with the practical study of industrial location.

Source

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

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