1. WEBER’S THEORY OF LOCATION

2. WHO WAS ALFRED WEBER?
Alfred Weber (30 July 1868 – 2 May 1958) was
a German economist, sociologist and theoreticia
n of culture whose work was influential in the
development of modern economic geography.

3. LIFE OF WEBER

4. From 1907 to 1933, Weber was
a professor at the University of
Heidelberg until his dismissal following
criticism of Hitlerism.

5. WEBER’S THEORY OF LOCATION

6. ASSUMPTIONS
OF WEBER’S
THEORY OF
LOCATION

7. A. The centre of
consumption are
fixed
PRODUCTION
MANUFACTURE
OF
PARTS
ASSEMBLY OF
PARTS
FOR FINISHED
GOODS
PACKAGING OF
FINISHED
GOODS

8. B. The cost of raw material is the same at
all places even though the distribution
of deposits of raw materials is uneven.

9. C. There are fixed centres of labour supply
and they have unlimited supplies of
labour at cost

10. D. Transport cost depends upon
weight of material and distance

11. FACTORS INFLUENCING
LOCATION OF PLANTS
1.Primary or regional factors
2.Secondary or agglomerative
and deglomerative

12. PRIMARY FACTORS
These factors influence the location of
plants over different regions.
Weber developed his theory on the basis of
two regional factors:-
Transportation cost
Labour cost

13. Transportation cost

14. TRANSPORTATION
A plant tends to be located at a site
where the total cost of transportation
of materials and products is minimum
Wheat field Factory

15. Transport cost is dependent on 2
basis

16. The weight to be transported

17. Distance to be covered

18. Weber classified materials in 2 forms:-
Ubiquitous materials
Localized materials

19. Ubiquitous materials
These materials are present
everywhere.
Example:- water, air etc

20. Localized materials
These materials are confined to a
particular region.
Example:- iron, gold, cotton etc

21. Localized materials can be further
divided into:-
Pure materials
 Gross materials

22. Pure materials
Pure or non-weight loosing materials do
not loose their weight in the process of
production.
Such materials do not pull plants to
their place of deposits.
Example:- cotton, wool etc

23. Gross materials
 Gross or weight-losing materials impart a
small part or none of their weight to the
finished product.
 Such materials attract production towards
places of deposits .
 Example:-sugarcane farms, coal etc

24. Material index
On the basis of the above reasoning Weber
developed a mathematical formula to measure
the relative pull of materials while those with
low materials and the market on industrial
location.

25. Material index=weight of localized
material/weight of the finished goods
If material index > 1 then plant will be
located near the resources .
If material index < 1 then plant will be
located near to the market.

26. Labour cost
Cost incurred to employee workers
These costs directly effects the
production of the firm.

27. Least
transportation cost
Resources Factory
A plant may deviate from the point of least transportation
cost when the savings in labour cost are greater than the
additional cost of transportation at the new centre.

28. Isodapanes
Isodapanes represent points of equal
transportation cost including assembling
cost of materials and distribution cost of
finished product.

29. Critical Isodapane
It is a point where
Transportation cost = Labour cost
i.e. where both labour cost and transportation
cost are minimum as compared to their total cost
any where else.

30. A point where both the
costs are minimum
Optimum place for a factory
resource
labour

31. Labour costs depends
upon:-

32. 1. Labour cost per unit
It is measured by
labour cost index
i.e. proportion of
labour cost to the
weight of the
finished product.

33. 2. Locational weight
It is the weight to be transported during the
process of production.

34. To measure the attracting power of labour,
Weber gave the following formula:-
Labour Coefficient=labour cost index/
locational weight
Higher the labour coefficient , greater
is the tendency for a plant to be
located near the centre of cheap
labour supply.

35. Secondary Factors
Secondary factors lead to concentration
or dispersal of industries. They are;-
Agglomerative
Deglomerative

36. Agglomerative
Agglomerative factors are the external
economies which result from concentration
of industries at a particular place

37. Deglomerative
These are external diseconomies that
causes geographical dispersal of
industry.

38. Index of manufacture
Index of manufacture = total
manufacturing cost/locational weight

39. Critical appraisal of Weber’s
theory

40.  There are no fixed centre of consumption
 Transportation rates are not uniform
 Fixed centers with unlimited supply of labour is
not true
Wrong Assumptions

41. Not empirically proved

42. Classification of raw materials is
arbitrary

43. Complex mathematical coefficients

44. Conclusion

45. The end
all feedbacks are welcome
(specially the critical ones)