Question

what determines the economic rent for land?

Answer 1

As economic rent can arise from conditions of scarcity and can be used to demonstrate numerous pricing discrepancies. These include higher pay for unionized workers compared with nonunionized workers, or huge salaries made by a star athlete versus an average working individual.

Economic rent also explains the high value of exclusive intangible assets, such as patents and permits. Together, these are also known as scarcity rents.

Economic rent is the extra money or payment made over and above the amount expected by its owner. It is the positive difference between the actual payment received for the work you have done or the money a piece of land or machinery has made for you and the payment amount that was expected in the first place.
Economic rents should not be confused with normal profits or surpluses that arise in the course of competitive capitalist production. This term also differs from the traditional use of the word "rent," which applies to payments received in exchange for temporary use of a particular good or property, such as land or housing.

Economic rents can also occur when certain producers in a competitive market have asymmetric information or else technologically advanced systems of production that give them a competitive advantage as a low-cost producer that other firms lack or are not capable of acquiring. If a wheat farmer somehow has access to a free and unlimited supply of water while his competitors do not, he would be able to extract economic rents by selling his product at the prevailing market price. As a result, economic rents are considered to be unearned.

Economic rent is an amount of money earned that exceeds that which is economically or socially necessary. This can occur, for example, when a buyer working to attain a good or service that is considered exclusive makes an offer prior to hearing what a seller considers an acceptable price.