Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-simulation-and-statistical-programming-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/1/a/iii/solution

The central limit theorem gives , so, with the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal distribution,
The error has two tails. Using the supplied quantile, whose two-sided coverage is approximately , gives
The supplied quantile would be appropriate for a one-sided calculation; it would give only approximately two-sided coverage. Using the exact quantile instead of would give draws; we consistently use the paper's rounded value below.
For routine Monte Carlo integration, the central limit theorem calculation is preferable as a practical budget: it uses about one fifteenth as many draws as the Chebyshev's inequality bound. However, its coverage is approximate. Finite variance alone supplies no universal rate of convergence to the normal distribution; an integrand with large skewness or a heavy-tailed distribution can make the approximation poor even at a large sample count. If an unconditional finite-sample guarantee is required under only the stated assumptions, use the Chebyshev's inequality budget.

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