Weber ’ s model on industrial location

Explicit assumptions Natural resources Markets Labour Transport costs Unevenly distributed (ubiquitous/localized) Fixed On a plain Fixed Immobile unlimited supply At given wage rate Weight + distance of transport

Implicit assumptions Uniform surface Fixed capital Perfect competition Economic men

Cost factors affecting industrial locations Transport costs Labour costs Cost of proximity (agglomeration/deglomeration)

Varignon frame

Material Index total weight of localized raw materials used = weight of finished products

Line graphs

Location triangle

Isodapane

Labour factor

the LTCL may not coincide with the cheapest labour site especially significant for attractive labour-intensive industries If the saving in labour cost is greater than the increase in transport cost, he will move to the cheap labour cost site

Labour factor Critical isodapane = transport cost at LTCL + labour cost savings at source of cheap labour If the source of cheap labour is inside the critical isodapane, the location is a profitable one (and vice versa).

Critical isodapane

Agglomeration factor

Further exercise