The Eastview Mall has many identical ice cream stores, which form a competitive industry. Each store pays an annual fee to the mall owner, who sets the fee as high as possible. (If it were any higher, all the stores would leave.) The mall owner is thinking of also charging the stores a "tax" (that is, an additional fee) of 50 cents per ice cream cone.
a) True or False: If the mall owner imposes this tax, he'll have to lower the annual fee by so much that he can't come out ahead.
b) Suppose in addition to the above that customers must pay to enter the mall. Customers are all identical and the fee is set as high as possible. Now can it be a good idea for the mall owner to impose a 50-cent-per-ice-cream-cone tax?