Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-32/1/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 32 1 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The complete market makes every state-contingent consumption vector attainable. Its budget is , and expected logarithmic utility under the equally likely states is , with . Increasing utility makes the budget bind. For a Lagrange multiplier , the first-order conditions areSubstitution in the budget gives , so andEvery state receives an expenditure , rather than equal consumption. Strict concavity of logarithmic utility makes this feasible stationary point the unique global maximizer. The physical probabilities enter the utility objective; the supporting prices enter the budget, and they must not be interchanged.
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