Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-probability-statistics-and-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/s/1/b/solution

For unknown normalization constants, use self-normalized importance sampling with :
Under the same support condition, and . Moreover , by Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the supplied . The strong law of large numbers applies to numerator and denominator sample averages. Their ratio tends almost surely, hence in probability, to . If a finite sample happens to give zero denominator, it can be assigned an arbitrary value; this does not affect the eventual almost sure limit. The ratio estimator is generally biased at finite .

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