A decision-maker faces the following decision under conditions of uncertainty. This decision-maker has $1 million in assets. Most of those assets, $750,000, are the individual’s equity in his house. The remaining $250,000 are absolutely secure. Unhappily, there is a risk that the individual’s house will burn down in a fire, which would be a total loss of the $750,000. The individual can insure his house against the loss from this fire. The premium for the insurance is $40,000, and it will insure the individual completely; that is, if the individual chooses to purchase this insurance policy, his assets will be $960,000, whether or not there is a fire. (There is no mortgage on the house, so $750,000 is the full amount paid by the insurance company.) The probability of a fire is 0.05. Required:
a. What is the expected net earnings, the premium less the expected amount paid out to the client, to the insurance company from this policy?
b. If the individual in question were risk neutral, would he buy this insurance policy?
c. If the individual in question is an expected utility maximizer, with the utility function u(a) = where a is the individuala's total assets, would this individual buy the insurance?