Abstract
Within location theory, classical models are typical abstract and formalized models, in which the main reasoning behind location choice of firms is driven by the minimization of transportation costs to achieve natural and intermediate production resources, and markets for final goods that are territorially dispersed. Classical models are similar in the question they want to reply to: what economic logic explains the location choices of firms in space? This topic is an important one. Although in terms of time and financial resources, the performance of transport and communication has improved enormously, many economic activities have not become footloose to the extent expressed by the “death of distance.” Their location choice still remains anchored to a balance between a physical location generating economic advantages – in the form of agglomeration economies – and transport costs to intermediate or final markets, as explained by these models.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso W (1960) A theory of the urban land market. Pap Proc Reg Sci Assoc 6:149–157
Alonso W (1964a) Location theory. In: Friedmann J, Alonso W (eds) Regional development and planning: a reader. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 78–106
Alonso W (1964b) Location and land use: towards a general theory of land rent. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Beckmann MJ (1969) On the distribution of urban rent and residential density. J Econ Theory 1(1):60–68
Cairncross F (1997) The death of distance. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge
Camagni R (1992) Economia Urbana: Principi e Modelli Teorici. La Nuova Italia, Rome
Capello R (2007) Regional economics. Routledge, London
Fujita M (1985) Urban economic theory: land use and city size. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
Isard W (1956) Location and space-economy. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Muth R (1968) Urban residential land and housing market. In: Perloff H, Wingo L (eds) Issues in urban economics. The Johns Hopkins Press, London, pp 285–333
Muth R (1969) Cities and housing. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Ricardo D (1971) Principles of political taxonomy and taxation. Penguin Books, Hardmondsworth. (Orig edn 1817)
von Thünen JH (1826) Der Isolierte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirtschaft und Nationalökonomie. Puthes, Hamburg
Weber A (1929) Alfred Weber’s theory of the location of industries. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Über der Standort der Industrien. Verlag Mohr, Tübingen. (orig edn 1909)
Wingo L (1961) Transportation and urban land. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Capello, R. (2020). Classical Contributions: Von Thünen and Weber. In: Fischer, M., Nijkamp, P. (eds) Handbook of Regional Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36203-3_94-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36203-3_94-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36203-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36203-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences