Thünen, Johann Heinrich von

(born June 24, 1783, Jever, Oldenburg—died Sept. 22, 1850, Tellow, Mecklenburg) German economist and agriculturalist. After carrying out research on his own estate into the relationship between the costs of commodity transportation and the location of production, he set forth his theories in The Isolated State (1826). He used an imaginary city, isolated in the middle of a fertile plain, to create a model of concentric zones of agricultural production. Heavy products and perishables would be produced close to the town, lighter and durable goods on the periphery; returns on the land would diminish as transport costs to the city increased. Thünen's model influenced many later writers on the subject.

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