Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2012 / iii / Paper 43 / 5 / ii

For secant domination for expected utility derivatives, at each sample value $x$ set $g_x(\theta )=U(\theta x)$. This is a differentiable concave function, regardless of the sign of $x$. Fix ${\theta }_0$ and $\delta >0$. For $\theta \in [{\theta }_0-\delta ,{\theta }_0+\delta ]$, concavity bounds its derivative between the two outer secant slopes:Because $U<0$, finiteness of $F$ means $\mathbb{E}|U(\eta X)|<\infty$ at each of these four endpoints. Their absolute values divided by $\delta$ therefore give a common integrable bound on $|g_X^{\prime }(\theta )|$. Difference quotients satisfy the same bound by the mean value theorem. The dominated convergence theorem permits differentiation under the expectation, and pointwise continuity of $X{U}^{\prime }(\theta X)$ with the same bound gives continuity of the derivative. Hence $\boxed{F^{\prime }(\theta )=\mathbb{E}[X{U}^{\prime }(\theta X)]}$ and $F\in C^1(\mathbb{R})$. This argument proves absolute integrability of the displayed derivative; no unjustified differentiation assumption is needed.