Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-23/1/c/solution

Risk aversion means that a sure mean is preferred to the corresponding risky portfolio wealth. An increasing concave utility function, with and , has this property by the Jensen inequality; strictly concave utility gives strict preference for nondegenerate risks. Differentiating the expected utility from part (a) gives
An interior optimum therefore satisfies
This balances the expected loss of marginal utility in the good state against its expected gain in the bad state. The borrowing constraint also requires checking the endpoints: if , while would require . At both state wealths equal , so
Hence an optimum never puts all wealth into deposits. If , continuity and the displayed endpoint sign give an interior root, and concavity makes every such root globally optimal. Under strict concavity it is unique.

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