Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 4 29I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 43 5 iii Solution 2026-10-07
A strictly increasing differentiable concave utility function on all of has everywhere. Otherwise monotonicity and the decreasing derivative would make it constant on a right half-line. Its tangent at zero also shows as .
If has only one sign, the stated second alternative already holds. Otherwise both and are positive. As , tends to infinity on ; as , it does so on . Since , Fatou lemma implies at both ends. Continuity gives a finite maximizer , and differentiability gives .
For optimal marginal utility as a one-period pricing density, put . It is strictly positive. On it is bounded by , whose expectation is finite by part ii. On continuity bounds on the compact interval . Thus is integrable and is absolutely integrable. Consequently . Normalizing by its positive expectation, if desired, makes it a probability density with the same zero pricing expectation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 43 5 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For , pointwise concavity of the utility function givesTaking expectations is legitimate because all three values are finite. Therefore : is concave. Strict concavity is not required and is not asserted.
Under a proportional transaction cost, the sample gain is concave when . The utility function is increasing and concave, soTake finite expectations. Thus . The monotonicity of is essential to composing it with the concave transaction-cost payoff.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 40 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Wealth and admissibility. The dollar holding earns the risky return, while earns the continuous-time bank account return. Removing consumption therefore givesHere is a dollar amount, not a number of shares; the number of shares is . Both controls must use available information: take predictable and progressively measurable, withalmost surely on every finite interval. Require a well-defined objective and an admissible trading strategy satisfying . At zero portfolio wealth this excludes continued risky gambling or positive consumption. The state-price budget constraint rules out doubling strategies. Throughout the diffusion calculations take , positive discount , positive decay , and finite value; degeneracies are discussed where they affect the conclusions.
Satisfaction and dynamic programming. Write the consumption satisfaction stock asThe product rule gives, almost everywhere in time,This state is a finite-variation process, so it has no quadratic covariation with portfolio wealth. Applying the Itô formula to the discounted value function over a short interval, then using dynamic programming, gives the interior HJB equationAssuming , completing the square givesThe last supremum is zero if and infinite otherwise. Thus the gradient constraint for unbounded consumption is , and wherever the inequality is strict. Since there is no direct penalty for a very large consumption rate, an active boundary can involve singular consumption control. In that relaxed interpretation the HJB equation isWith ordinary rate controls, this describes the supremum and its limiting transfer policy; it does not promise that an instantaneous transfer is attained by a finite rate.
Power reduction. An additive constant in the utility function only adds a control-independent constant divided by to the value, so normalize . Put and for . Scaling portfolio wealth, consumption satisfaction and the controls by the same positive number gives the wealth-to-satisfaction reductionConsequently the reduced HJB equation isIn the strict waiting region the first expression vanishes and consumption is zero. On a transfer region the second vanishes; integrating it gives . This reflects preservation of during an instantaneous wealth-to-satisfaction transfer.
Why a waiting threshold is expected, and its qualification. The gradient constraint for unbounded consumption compares the benefit of increasing consumption satisfaction with the opportunity cost of spending financial portfolio wealth. When consumption satisfaction is already large relative to cash, waiting lets consumption satisfaction decay while financial portfolio wealth earns returns; consuming immediately can be wasteful. Homogeneity makes the comparison depend only on . For fixed , joint concavity of the value function makes concave in financial portfolio wealth . It is nondecreasing because an immediate transfer can reproduce any smaller financial allocation. Consequently its derivative is nonnegative and nonincreasing in : a strict waiting region, if present, starts at zero financial portfolio wealth and ends at a single transfer boundary. Homogeneity makes the corresponding boundary a ratio . In the usual finite-boundary regime this gives for , and transfers push a larger ratio down towards . The condition is a comparison of marginal values, not the ordinary formula : current utility function here depends on consumption satisfaction, not on current consumption.
A positive threshold is not guaranteed by the printed hypotheses alone. A useful sufficient local test illustrates the intended argument. Let . At zero portfolio wealth,Starting with a small extra portfolio wealth , holding it in the continuous-time bank account until a fixed time , then transferring it into consumption satisfaction, has right derivative in at zero equal toTherefore, if , the portfolio wealth marginal value is strictly larger than the consumption satisfaction marginal value at zero. With the usual continuity of marginal values, there is a positive interval on which the gradient constraint for unbounded consumption is strict. The fixed-total-resource concavity argument then gives the threshold structure.
For a concrete counterexample to an unconditional positive threshold, take , , , and . There is zero market price of risk. The relaxed value isIndeed , , and the optimized waiting residual, after division by , isbecause and the integrand is decreasing. The Itô formula gives an upper bound by , while transferring all portfolio wealth into consumption satisfaction over intervals tending to zero attains that bound in the limit. Hence the transfer boundary is in this example. The positive-threshold explanation needs a parameter regime supporting a genuine waiting region. For , even the zero-wealth value is finite only if ; otherwise decaying consumption satisfaction gives value .