A firm that produces potato chips occupies four hectares of land. The firm produces 10 tons of output per day and sells its output at a price of $240 per ton on the export market. The firm does not engage in factor substitution as the price of land changes. Intra-urban transportation is on trucks, with a unit cost of $12 per ton per mile. The firm’s non-land cost is $560 per day. The firm exports its output via circumferential highway (i. e., beltway around the city). That is, it wants to be near the beltway.
(a) Sketch the firm’s bid-rent curve for land for different distances from the beltway, from a distance zero to five miles.
(b) What is the bid-rent at the beltway? What is the slope of the bid-rent function? Show your work.