Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-probability-statistics-and-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/s/2/a/solution
Past exam of the Probability, statistics and options II course of the University of Oxford 2008 S 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Assume the fixed margins are compatible, so the finite state space is nonempty. At state , draw an index table from the stipulated uniform proposal law. If has any negative entry, reject and stay at ; otherwise accept and set the next state to . The margins stay fixed because the proposal has zero row and column sums.
The proposal set is invariant under . Hence proposals between two feasible distinct states are symmetric. The target density is constant, so the Metropolis–Hastings acceptance probability for a feasible proposal is one. The explicit rejection of infeasible proposals is essential: fixed margins by themselves do not guarantee nonnegative entries.
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