Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/ii/paper-1/28j/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 1 28J Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The reservation bid price for a claim is the fixed cash payment which leaves the agent indifferent: . For Gaussian wealth , exponential utility is , so its certainty equivalent is . For , subtracting the original certainty equivalent givesThe marginal price is positive when the claim hedges the agent's endowment, negative when it adds positively correlated risk, and zero for an uncorrelated zero-mean infinitesimal position.
Assume , so the claim is nontrivial. Buying units at per-unit price changes the certainty equivalent by . This strictly concave quadratic is maximized at . Market clearing givesAt the optimum the certainty-equivalent gain isThe maximal expected utility equals the original negative utility multiplied by , hence is improved. Paying a fixed amount removes exactly that gain, proving it is the fixed-payment value of market access. If , the Gaussian claim vanishes almost surely, all its covariances vanish, and the appropriate price and access value are zero; the printed formulas with a variance denominator require the nontrivial-claim assumption.
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