You have older parents who have been saving for retirement for decades. They are now getting close to retirement age and are looking at their options. One would like to leave everything in the pension fund and draw out a fixed, unchangeable amount over their retirement time. Your other parent wants to take out a chunk of retirement funds and purchase a business and use the profit from it to generate funds on which to live. You have noticed that inflation over the last few years is on a rapid rise. What would you advise your parents to do based on what you know of inflation and its redistribution of purchasing power

5. profit maximization and shutting down in the short run suppose that the market for polos is a competitive market. the following graph shows the daily cost curves of a firm operating in this market. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 price (dollars per polo) quantity (thousands of polos) mc atc avc for each price in the following table, calculate the firm's optimal quantity of units to produce, and determine the profit or loss if it produces at that quantity, using the data from the previous graph to identify its total variable cost. assume that if the firm is indifferent between producing and shutting down, it will produce. (hint: you can select the purple points [diamond symbols] on the previous graph to see precise information on average variable cost.) price quantity total revenue fixed cost variable cost profit (dollars per polo) (polos) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) 12.50 135,000 27.50 135,000 45.00 135,000 if the firm shuts down, it must incur its fixed costs (fc) in the short run. in this case, the firm's fixed cost is $135,000 per day. in other words, if it shuts down, the firm would suffer losses of $135,000 per day until its fixed costs end (such as the expiration of a building lease). this firm's shutdown price—that is, the price below which it is optimal for the firm to shut down—is per polo.

Consider the market for gasoline. suppose that, in a competitive market without government regulations, the equilibrium price of gasoline is $3.00 per gallon, and employees at gas stations earn $17.50 per hour. complete the following table by indicating whether each of the statements is an example of a price ceiling or a price floor and whether it results in a shortage or a surplus or has no effect on the price and quantity that prevail in the market. statement price control effect the government has instituted a legal minimum price of $3.40 per gallon for gasoline. the government prohibits gas stations from selling gasoline for more than $3.40 per gallon. due to new regulations, gas stations that would like to pay better wages in order to hire more workers are prohibited from paying more than $14.50 per hour.

At a student café, there are equal numbers of two types of customers with the following values. the café owner cannot distinguish between the two types of students because many students without early classes arrive early anyway (i.e., she cannot price-discriminate). students with early classes students without early classes coffee 70 60 banana 51 101 the marginal cost of coffee is 10 and the marginal cost of a banana is 40. the café owner is considering three pricing strategies: 1. mixed bundling: price bundle of coffee and a banana for 161, or just a coffee for 70. 2. price separately: offer coffee at 60, price a banana at 101. 3. bundle only: coffee and a banana for 121. do not offer goods separately. assume that if the price of an item or bundle is no more than exactly equal to a student's willingness to pay, then the student will purchase the item or bundle. for simplicity, assume there is just one student with an early class, and one student without an early class. price strategy revenue from pricing strategy cost from pricing strategy profit from pricing strategy 1. mixed bundling $ $ $ 2. price separately $ $ $ 3. bundle only $ $ $ pricing strategy yields the highest profit for the café owner.