Consider the special case of a monopoly in which mc = 0. let's find the firm's best choice when more goods can be produced at no extra cost. a great deal of e-commerce is close to this model, where the fixed cost of inventing the product and satisfying government regulators is the only cost that matters. consider a monopoly facing the following demand curve and fixed costs: p = 120 – 12q; fixed costs = 1,000 should the firm go into business? if so, how much should the firm produce?

3. saving two consumers, larry and jeff, have utility functions defined over the two periods of their lives: middle age (period zero) and retirement (period 1). they have the same income in period 0 of m dollars and they will not earn income in period 1. the interest rate they face is r. larry’s and jeff’s utility functions are as follow. = 0.5 + 0.5 and = 0.5 + 0.5 for each person is between zero and one and represents each consumer’s temporal discount econ 340: intermediate microeconomics. ben van kammen: purdue university. rate. a. write the budget constraint that applies to both jeff and larry in terms of consumption in each period and ), interest rate, and m. b. what is larry’s and what is jeff’s marginal rate of intertemporal substitution? c. what is the slope of the budget constraint? d. write each consumer’s condition for lifetime utility maximization. e. re-arrange the conditions from part (d) to solve for the ratio, . f. if > which consumer will save more of his middle age income? g. if > 1 1+ , in which period will larry consume more: = 0 or = 1?