Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / iii / Paper 38 / 3 / b / Solution

The severity is an equal-weight mixture distribution of rate-$2$ and rate-$2/3$ exponential distributions. Its expected value isThe moment-generating function, finite exactly for $r<2/3$, isCanceling the nonzero $r$ in the adjustment coefficient equation and multiplying by the positive denominator on $0<r<2/3$ givesThus the required polynomial isSince $P(0)=4\theta >0$, $P(2/3)=-2<0$, and the leading coefficient is positive, one root lies in $(0,2/3)$ and the other exceeds $2/3$. Only the smaller root is in the moment-generating function domain. ConsequentlyThe rationalized expression avoids subtraction of nearly equal numbers when $\theta$ is small.

The erroneously chosen same-mean exponential distribution gives $R_{\exp }=\theta /(1+\theta )$. Direct substitution shows $P(R_{\exp })=-\theta <0$, so $R_{\exp }$ lies strictly between the two polynomial roots, and in particular $R_{\mathrm{mix}}<R_{\exp }$. Thereforewhile both bounds equal one at $u=0$. The exponential misspecification produces a smaller claimed upper bound. The Lundberg inequality certifies $e^{-R_{\mathrm{mix}}u}$ for the actual mixture; it does not certify the smaller expression computed from the wrong severity law.