Consider two firms that sell undifferentiated products for which the demand is linear. Assume that both firms have the same constant marginal cost and no fixed costs.

- Let _M denote the profit either firm would earn if it were the only firm in the market. You should assume Mis positive.

- Let _C denote the profit each firm would earn in the two-player, simultaneous-move Cournot game.

- Let _L denote the profit either firm would earn if it chose its quantity as the Leader in the sequential-move LeaderFollower game.

Which of the following relationships holds?

a. _M < _{C < L b. C < L < M} c. _L < _{C < M d. L < M < C e. C < M < L}