consider the local telephone company, a natural monopoly. the following graph shows the demand curve for phone services, the company's marginal revenue curve (labeled mr), its marginal cost curve (labeled mc), and its average cost curve (labeled ac). (hint: select a point on the graph to see its exact coordinates.) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 price (dollars per month) quantity (thousands of households per month) d mr mc ac 5, 20 assume no government regulation. if the natural monopoly provides the profit-maximizing output, it will provide phone services tohouseholds per month at a price ofand earn a profit ofper month. suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to marginal cost. in the short run, under a marginal-cost pricing regulation, the monopolist will provide phone services tohouseholds per month at a price of. under the marginal-cost pricing regulation, the firm will experience: a profit of zero an economic loss a positive profit suppose that the government forces the natural monopoly to set its price equal to average cost. under an average-cost pricing policy, the monopolist would provide phone services tohouseholds per month at a price ofand earn a profit ofper month. under average-cost pricing, the government will raise the price of output whenever a firm's costs increase and lower the price whenever a firm's costs decrease. over time, under the average-cost pricing policy, what will the local telephone company most likely do? try to decrease its costs