JEAN-PAUL PAQUIN, ANNICK LAMBERT AND ALAIN CHARBONNEAU 297
Given that the cumulants of order higher than 2 generally are not equal to zero, it then
follows that:
nlim→∞√∑αtε ̃t
∑α 2
t
=nlim→∞
∑n
t= 1
logφ ̃ε
αth
√∑
α^2 t
=nlim→∞
−
h^2
2
−
i
3!
∑n
t= 1
αt
√∑
α^2 t
3
h^3 K 3
+
1
4!
∑n
t= 1
αt
√∑
α^2 t
4
h^4 K 4 +...
=−
h^2
2
However, when the discount rate is set equal to zero then:
nlim→∞
α^21
∑n
t= 1
α^2 t
=
1
n
and the logarithm of the characteristic function in terms of its cumulants can be written as:
√∑αt ̃εt
∑α 2
t
=
∑n
t= 1
logφε ̃
(
αth
∑
α^2 t
)
=−
h^2
2
−
i
3!
∑n
t= 1
(
1
√
n
) 3
h^3 K 3
+^1
4!
∑n
t= 1
(
√^1
n
) 4
h^4 K 4 +...
Consequently, its limit value can be written as:
nlim→∞√∑αtε ̃t
∑α 2
t
=nlim→∞
∑n
t= 1
logφ ̃ε
(
αth
∑
α^2 t
)
=−
h^2
2
and therefore limn→∞φ ̃ε
(
∑αth
α^2 t
)
=e−
h 22
, which is the characteristic function of the Normal
probability distribution.
APPENDIX 2: THE CLT AND THE FIRST-ORDER
AUTOREGRESSIVE PROCESS
We consider a weighted sum of random cash flowsX ̃tsuch that each variate has an equal
weight. We thus define the random meanX ̃ ̄as the sum ofnequally weighted random
cash flowsX ̃tas:
X ̃ ̄=
∑n
t= 1
X ̃t
n
(A.1)
for whichX ̃t=μX+ ̃εt, fort=1, 2, 3...,n.