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Definition of factor mobility as the ease with which a factor of production can be
transferred from one area/place/location or form of employment to another.
Factor mobility takes two forms:
1. Geographical mobility:- ease with which a factor of production can be transferred from one place
of employment to another eg. from Nairobi to Nakuru.
2. Occupational mobility:- ease with which a factor of production can be transferred from one form
of employment to another eg. from medicine to accountancy or teaching.
The extent of factor mobility cannot be generalized because it differs depending on the nature of the various
factors of production; therefore explained by looking at each factor independently as follows:
i) Land:
a) Geographically immobile – can?t be physically moved from one place to another;
b) Occupationally mobile – can be put to different/alternative uses eg. Grazing,
Plantation agriculture, building construction (residence) etc.
c) Limited occupational mobility, however, eg mountainous areas of land which are
Only used for a specific purpose or purposes like tourist attraction etc.
ii) Capital:
Both fixed/physical and working/circulating capital whose extent of mobility depends on their
form/nature (of capital) as reflected in the following examples:
Heavy machinery such as blast furnaces and railway lines are both geographically and occupationally
immobile. A railway for instance is possible to dismantle and physically transfer to another site
(region) but the exercise is prohibitively expensive in terms of overwhelming costs thus making
relocation cost-ineffective – hence geographically immobile.
Vehicles: both geographically and occupationally mobile – can be physically moved (driven) from
one place to another or used multi-purposely, say as a public transport means (PSV) or for
transportation of goods.
Buildings:- geographically immobile but occupationally mobile – cannot physically move or transfer a
building (intact) from one place to another but is can be used multi purposely , at one time as a clinic
and another time as probably a classroom.
Combine harvesters and petrol tankers: geographically mobile but occupationally immobile since they
are designed for a specific use.
iii) Labor:
a) Human physical and/or mental effort devoted to production of goods and services aimed at
satisfying human material wants.
b) Highly geographically mobile but relatively less occupationally mobile due to specialization.
Eg. The case of medical doctors etc.
c) Horizontal and vertical forms of occupational mobility – in terms of remuneration or status
or both eg. Horizontally as an accounts clerk in one firm and becoming the same clerk in
another firm or vertically as an accounts clerk to becoming a senior accountant with the
same firm.
d) Barriers to geographical mobility:- movement cost, shortage of housing, education of
children, social and family ties etc.
e) Barriers to occupational mobility:- personal talents, cost and length of training, availability of
capital, regulation, social class etc.
iv) Entrepreneurship:-
a) Organization/management/decision – making aspect of a resource, that is, the means of
combining other resources/inputs with a view to profit
b) Highly mobile in both senses since functions are common(similar) across the board i.e.
taking up risk by raising capital,organization of other factors of production, decision-making
and assumption of both profits/losses arising there from
Wilfykil answered the question on February 6, 2019 at 08:10
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