Answer:
a. downward sloping
b. decrease
c. decrease
Explanation:
Monopolistic competition is a type of imperfect competition:
Companies do not have the monopoly market power but they do have some market power.
Behavior
:
As in the other models already analyzed, these companies seek to maximize their profit, which will lead them to set their level of activity at the cut-off point of the marginal revenue and marginal cost curve.
Once this level of activity has been determined, the price will be determined by the demand curve.
Therefore, in a monopolistic competition market, the company produces in the descending section of its average total cost curve, while in competitive markets it produces at the minimum point of its average total cost curve.
Monopolistically competitive companies produce below the efficient scale. This lower activity means that, unlike the perfectly competitive market, the total profit is not maximized.
