A payment for the services of an economic resource above what is necessary for it to remain in its current use. Economic rent can result from monopoly power, network effects, political decisions, and star power. Unimproved land, which is valuable purely on account of its location, commands a rent based on its value to the user. Nobody had to be paid to make it, so rent paid to a landlord is economic rent. In the case of land which has been improved, however, for example by drainage, part of the rent is a necessary incentive for the improvements. If landlords knew that no rent could be charged, the land would not be improved.