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Suppose I have a Banach space of functions over $\mathbb{R}$ with norm $||\cdot||$. Suppose that $f$ is a random function that takes values in this space such that $||f||\leq 1$. Suppose that for all $x\in\mathbb{R}$ $E[f(x)]$ exists and is finite (where the expectation is over the random function $f$). Can I then apply Jensen's inequality to get $||E[f]||\leq E[||f||] \leq 1$? Where $E[f]$ is the function of $\mathbb{R}$ defined by $E[f](x)=E[f(x)]$.

Moreover, suppose that I do not know that $E[f(x)]$ is finite for all $x$. Can I then replace $f$ with some related function $\hat{f}$ so that $E[\hat{f}(x)]$ exists and is finite for all $x$ and $||\hat{f}-f||=0$.

In the case where the norm is an $L_p(\mu)$ norm for some measure $\mu$ over $\mathbb{R}$, then $||\hat{f}-f||=0$ means that the two functions differ only on a subset of $\mathbb{R}$ of $\mu$ measure 0. I think I can prove the results above directly for $L_p$ norms (and easily for the supremum norm) but I wondered if they might be known to hold more generally either for all norms or perhaps all monotone norms.

Any help greatly appreciated!

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    What do you mean by a random function? If $B$ is separable and $f$ is weakly measurable, then it seems to me the Bochner integral would apply here and you would have $|\mathbb{E}(f)| \leq \mathbb{E}(|f|)$. –  May 30 '18 at 23:23
  • Sorry I should have been clearer about that. We can think of there being a random finite-dimensional vector $u$ and the random function $f$ is a map from $u$ and $x$ to the reals. So what I really mean by $E[f(x)]$ is $E[f(x;u)]$ where the expectation is over the distribution of $u$ with $x$ fixed. Of course that is the finite dimensional case (where the random function has to live in a finite dimensional subspace of the Banach space), but more generally we can think of random functions like Gaussian processes. – SecretlyAnEconomist May 30 '18 at 23:29
  • Also I think you're right about the Bochner integral answering my question thank you! – SecretlyAnEconomist May 30 '18 at 23:33
  • @fourierwho : (+1) I don't know about Bochner integrals but the wiki article I saw on that topic seems consistent with your comment. Below I give a counter-example to Jensen's inequality for infinite dimensional spaces, with a related result that is perhaps another way to prove more general versions of $||E[f]||\leq E[||f||]$. – Michael May 31 '18 at 04:42

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Here is an example where Jensen’s inequality $f(E[\mathbf{X}])\leq E[f(\mathbf{X})]$ for convex functions $f$ fails when $f$ is defined over an infinite dimensional vector space, even when all expectations are finite.

Define $\mathcal{X}$ as the set of all infinite sequences $\mathbf{x}=\{x_i\}_{i=1}^{\infty}$ such that $\lim_{i\rightarrow\infty} x_i2^i$ exists and is a real number. Define $f:\mathcal{X}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ by $$ f(\mathbf{x}) = \lim_{i\rightarrow\infty} x_i2^i $$ It is easy to verify that $\mathcal{X}$ is a convex set and $f$ is a convex function.

For each $m \in \{1, 2, 3, ...\}$ define $\mathbf{e}^{(m)}$ as the infinite sequence that is 1 in entry $m$ and zero in all other entries. Then $f(\mathbf{e}^{(m)}) = 0$ for all $m \in \{1, 2, 3, ...\}$. Let $G$ be a random variable with mass function $P[G=m]=(1/2)^m$ for $m \in \{1, 2, 3, …\}$. Define the random sequence $\mathbf{X}= \mathbf{e}^{(G)}$, so $$ \mathbf{X} = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \mathbf{e}^{(1)}=\{1, 0, 0, 0, ...\} &\mbox{ with prob 1/2} \\ \mathbf{e}^{(2)}=\{0, 1, 0, 0, ...\} &\mbox{ with prob 1/4} \\ \mathbf{e}^{(3)}=\{0, 0, 1, 0, ...\} &\mbox{ with prob 1/8} \\ \cdots \end{array} \right.$$

Then $f(\mathbf{X}) = 0$ always, and so $E[f(\mathbf{X})]=0$. However: $$ E[\mathbf{X}] = \{1/2, 1/4, 1/8, ...\} =\{2^{-i}\}_{i=1}^{\infty} \implies f(E[\mathbf{X}])=1$$ $\Box$


The reason the above (counter)example exists is because the set $\mathcal{X}$ is not closed and/or the function $f$ is not continuous. Let $V$ be a normed vector space (possibly infinite dimensional). Here is a statement and proof of Jensen's inequality for this case.

Claim (Infinite dimensional Jensen):

Suppose $\mathcal{X}$ is a closed and convex subset of $V$ and $f:\mathcal{X}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a continuous and convex function. Let $X$ be a random vector that takes values in $\mathcal{X}$ and assume $E[X] \in V$ and $E[f(X)] \in \mathbb{R}$. Assume that $E[h(X)] = h(E[X])$ for every continuous linear functional $h:V\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$. Then

a) $E[X]\in \mathcal{X}$.

b) $f(E[X]) \leq E[f(X)]$.

Proof:

Proof of a) Suppose $E[X] \notin \mathcal{X}$ (we reach a contradiction). Then $\mathcal{X}$ is a closed and convex subset of $V$ and $E[X]$ is a point in $V$ that is not in $\mathcal{X}$. The (strict) Hahn-Banach separation theorem ensures existence of a nonzero continuous linear function $h:V\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ and a value $c$ such that $h(E[X])> c \geq h(x)$ for all $x \in \mathcal{X}$. Since $X \in \mathcal{X}$ we get $$ h(E[X]) > c \geq h(X) \quad \mbox{(surely)} $$ taking expectations and using linearity of expectation gives $$ h(E[X]) > c \geq E[h(X)] = h(E[X]) $$ a contradiction. $\Box$

Proof of b) Define the normed vector space $\tilde{V} = V \times \mathbb{R}$. Define the set $$\mathcal{A} = \{(x, y) : x \in \mathcal{X}, y \geq f(x)\}$$
It can be shown that (i) $\mathcal{A}$ is a closed and convex subset of $\tilde{V}$; (ii) $(X, f(X)) \in \mathcal{A}$; (iii) $(E[X], E[f(X)])\in \tilde{V}$. Applying the result of part (a) gives $$ E[(X, f(X))] = (E[X], E[f(X)]) \in \mathcal{A} $$ and so $f(E[X])\leq E[f(X)]$ by the defining property of set $\mathcal{A}$. $\Box$

As a special case of the above claim, we define $V = \mathcal{X}$ as the Banach space of functions $g$ with $||g||\leq 1$ and note that $V$ is a closed and convex set and $||\cdot||:V\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a continuous and convex function. So $||E[g]||\leq E[||g||]$.

Michael
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  • For finite dimensional vector spaces we can remove the assumptions that $\mathcal{X}$ is closed and that $f$ is continuous. – Michael May 31 '18 at 04:52
  • That's awesome thanks! – SecretlyAnEconomist Jun 01 '18 at 15:50
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    As a connection to Bochner: If $V$ is a Banach space and expectations of random vectors in $V$ are defined via Bochner integrals, then it turns out that if $X(\omega)$ is a random vector in $V$ with $E[||X||]$ finite, then indeed $E[h(X)]=h(E[X])$ for all continuous linear functionals $h:V\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$. – Michael Jun 01 '18 at 23:18