Final answer:
The monopolist would incur an economic loss of $1 if forced to produce and sell 6 units, as the total revenue from 6 units is $72 and the total cost is $73. Producing the sixth unit is not economically beneficial due to negative marginal revenue.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a monopolist is forced to produce and sell 6 units of output, to calculate the monopolist's economic profit, we need to consider the total revenue and total costs associated with producing 6 units. According to the data provided, at 6 units, the price per unit would be $12 (since that's the adjacent price for a quantity of 6 in the demand column), leading to total revenue (price × quantity) of $12 × 6 = $72. The total cost associated with producing 6 units is $73. To determine the economic profit, we subtract the total cost from the total revenue, which would be $72 (total revenue) - $73 (total cost) = -$1. Therefore, the monopolist would incur an economic loss of $1.
Moreover, we see from the provided information that the marginal revenue of producing the sixth unit is negative (-$3), indicating that the revenue gained from selling that additional unit does not cover the marginal cost of producing it, which further implies that producing and selling that sixth unit is not economically beneficial for the monopolist.
It is important to note that in the context of monopolistic behavior, the profit-maximizing level of output is determined by where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. The information suggests that expanding beyond a quantity of 5 leads to negative marginal revenue, indicating that 5 units is the profit-maximizing output, not 6.