AP Human Geography Unit 7

Question 1

Agglomeration

Answer 1

Grouping together of many firms from the same industry in a single area for collective or cooperative use of infrastructure and sharing of labor resources.

Question 2

Ancillary activities/Multiplier Effect

Answer 2

Economic activities that surround and support large-scale industries such as shipping and food service.

Question 3

Backwash Effects

Answer 3

The negative effects on one region that result from economic growth within another region.

Question 4

Break-Bulk Point

Answer 4

A location where large shipments of goods are broken up into smaller containers for delivery to local markets.

Question 5

Brick-and-Mortar Business

Answer 5

Traditional businesses with actual stores in which trade or retail occurs; they do not exist solely on the internet.

Question 6

Bulk-gaining industries

Answer 6

Industries whose products weigh more after assembly than they did previously in their constituent parts. Such industries tend to have production facilities close to their markets.

Question 7

Bulk-reducing industries

Answer 7

Industries whose final products weigh less after assembly than they did previously in their constituent parts and whose processing facilities tend to be located close to the sources of raw materials.

Question 8

Commodity Dependence

Answer 8

When peripheral economies rely too heavily on the export of raw materials, which places them on unequal terms of exchange with more-developed countries that export higher-value goods.

Question 9

Conglomerate Cooperation

Answer 9

A firm comprising many smaller firms that serve several different functions.

Question 10

Core

Answer 10

National or global regions where economic power, in terms of wealth, innovation, and advanced technology, is concentrated.

Question 11

Core-periphery model

Answer 11

A model of the spatial structure of development in which underdeveloped countries are defined by their dependence on a developed core region.

Question 12

Cottage Industry

Answer 12

An industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes, as opposed to factories

Question 13

Deglomeration

Answer 13

The dispersal of an industry that formerly existed in an established agglomeration.

Question 14

Deindustrialization

Answer 14

Loss of industrial activity in a region

Question 15

Development

Answer 15

The process of economic growth, expansion, or realization of regional resource potential.

Question 16

E-commerce

Answer 16

Web-based economic activities

Question 17

Economic backwaters

Answer 17

Regions that fail to gain from natural economic development

Question 18

Ecotourism

Answer 18

A form of tourism, based on enjoyment of scenic areas or natural wonders, that aims to provide an experience of nature or culture in an environmentally sustainable way.

Question 19

Export-Processing Zone

Answer 19

Area where governments create favorable investment and trading conditions to attract export-oriented industries.

Question 20

Fast World

Answer 20

Areas of the world, usually the economic core, that experience greater levels of connection due to the high-speed telecommunications and transportation technologies.

Question 21

Footloose Firms

Answer 21

Manufacturing activities in which the cost of transporting both raw materials and finished product is not important for determining the location of the firm.

Question 22

Fordism

Answer 22

System of standardized mass production attributed to Henry Ford.

Question 23

Foreign Investments

Answer 23

Overseas business investments made by private companies.

Question 24

Gender Equity

Answer 24

A measure of the opportunities given to women compared to men within a given county.

Question 25

Globalization

Answer 25

The idea that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected on a global scale such that smaller scales of political and economic life are becoming obsolete.

Question 26

Gross Domestic Product

Answer 26

The total value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country during a specific time period, usually one year.

Question 27

Gross National Product

Answer 27

The total value of goods and services, including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country within a specific time period, usually one year.

Question 28

Human Development Index

Answer 28

Measure used by the United Nations that calculates development not in terms of money or productivity but in terms of human welfare. The HDI evaluates human welfare based on three parameters: life, expectancy, education, and income.

Question 29

Industrial Revolution

Answer 29

The rapid economic and social changes in manufacturing that resulted after the introduction of the factory system to the textile industry in England at the end of the 18th centaury.

Question 30

Industrialization

Answer 30

Process of industrial development in which countries evolve economically, from producing basic, primary goods to using modern factories for mass-producing goods. At the highest levels of development, national economies are geared mainly toward the delivery of services and exchange of information.

Question 31

Industrialized Countries

Answer 31

These countries, including Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, and Japan, that were all at the forefront of industrial production and innovation through the middle of the 20th century. While industry is currently shifting to other countries to take advantage of cheaper labor and more relaxed environmental standards, these countries still account for a large portion of the world’s total industrial output.

Question 32

Least-Cost Theory

Answer 32

A concept developed by Alfred Weber to describe the optimal location of a manufacturing establishment in relation to the cost of transport and labor, and the relative advantages of agglomeration or deglomeration.

Question 33

Least-Developed Countries

Answer 33

These countries, including countries in Africa, parts of South America, and Asia, that usually have low levels of economic productivity, low per-capita incomes and generally low standards of living.

Question 34

Manufacturing Region

Answer 34

A region in which manufacturing activities have clustered together. For example, Great Lakes, Indiana, Illinois, central England, around Tokyo etc.

Question 35

Maquiladoras

Answer 35

Cities where US firms have factories just outside the United States-Mexican border in areas that have been specifically designated by the Mexican Government.

Question 36

Microlending

Answer 36

A provision of small loans to poorer people, typically women, to encourage development of small businesses that are often community-oriented.

Question 37

Net National Product

Answer 37

A measure of all goods and services produced by a country in a year, including production from its investments abroad, minus the loss or degradation of natural resource capital as a result of productivity.

Question 38

Nonrenewable Resources

Answer 38

Natural resources, such as fossil fuels, that do not replenish themselves in a timeframe that is relevant for human consumption.

Question 39

Offshore financial centers

Answer 39

Areas that have been specially designed to promote business transactions, and thus have become centers for banking and finance.

Question 40

Outsourcing

Answer 40

Sending industrial processes out for external production. The term outsourcing increasingly applies not only to traditional industrial functions but also to the contracting of service industry functions to companies to overseas locations, where operating costs remain relatively low.

Question 41

Periphery

Answer 41

Countries that usually have low levels of economic productivity, low per-capita incomes, and generally low standards of living. Includes least-develeped countries.

Question 42

Primary Economic Activities

Answer 42

Economic activities in which natural resources are made available for use or further processing, including mining, agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Question 43

Productivity

Answer 43

A measure of the goods and services produced within a particular country.

Question 44

Purchasing-Power Parity

Answer 44

A monetary measurement of development that takes into account what money buys in different countries.

Question 45

Quaternary Economic Activities

Answer 45

Economic activities concerned with research, information, gathering, and administration.

Question 46

Quinary Economic Activities

Answer 46

The most advanced form of quaternary activities consisting of high-level decision-making for large corporations or high-level scientific research.

Question 47

Regionalization

Answer 47

The process by which specific regions acquire characteristics that differentiate them from others within the same country. In economic geography, regionalization involves the development of dominant economic activities in particular regions.

Question 48

Renewable Resources

Answer 48

Any natural resource that can replenish itself in a relatively short period of time, usually no longer than the length of a human life.

Question 49

Rostow’s Stages of development (economic growth)

Answer 49

A model of economic development that describes a country’s progression, which occurs in five stages, transforming them from least-developed to most-developed countries.

Question 50

Secondary Economic Activities

Answer 50

Economic activities concerned with the processing of raw materials, such as manufacturing, construction, and power generation.

Question 51

Semiperiphery

Answer 51

These newly industrialized countries with median standards of living, such as Chile, Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia. Semiperipheral countries offer their citizens relatively diverse economic opportunities but also have extreme gaps between rich and poor.

Question 52

Service-based economies

Answer 52

Highly developed economies that focus on research and development, marketing, tourism, sales, and telecommunications.

Question 53

Slow World

Answer 53

The developing world that does not experience the benefits of high-speed telecommunications and transportation technology.

Question 54

Spatially fixed costs

Answer 54

An input cost in manufacturing that remains constant wherever production is located.

Question 55

Spatially variable costs

Answer 55

An input cost in manufacturing that remains constant wherever production is located,.

Question 56

Specialty Goods

Answer 56

Goods that are not mass-produced but rather assembled individually or in small quantities.

Question 57

Sustainable development

Answer 57

The idea that people living today should be able to meet their needs without prohibiting the ability of future generations to do the same.

Question 58

Tertiary Economic Activities

Answer 58

Activities that provide the market exchange of goods and that brings together consumers and providers of services, such as retail, transportation, government, personal and professional services.

Question 59

Transnational Corporation

Answer 59

A firm that conducts business in at least two separate countries; also known as multinational corporations.

Question 60

World Cities

Answer 60

A group of cities that form an interconnected, internationally dominant system of global control of finance and commerce.

Question 61

World-Systems Theory

Answer 61

Theory developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that explains the emergence of a core, periphery, and semiperiphery in terms of economic and political connections first established at the beginning of exploration in the late 15th century and maintained through increased economic access up until the present.