Markov's Inequality

Proposition (Markov’s Inequality)

Let ZZ be a integrable random variable. Then for any ϵ>0\epsilon>0, P(Z≥ϵ)≤E[Z]ϵ\mathbb{P}(Z\ge\epsilon)\le\frac{\mathbb{E}[Z]}{\epsilon}

\begin{proof} Define the event E={X≥α}={ω∈Ω:X(ω)≥α}E=\{ X\ge\alpha \}=\{ \omega \in\Omega:X(\omega)\ge \alpha \}. Then X≥α1EX\ge \alpha \mathbb{1}_{E}where if ω∈E\omega \in E then {X(ω)≥αα1E(ω)=α  ⟹  X(ω)≥α1E(ω)\begin{cases} X(\omega)\ge \alpha \\ \alpha \mathbb{1}_{E}(\omega)=\alpha \end{cases}\implies X(\omega)\ge \alpha \mathbb{1}_{E}(\omega)and if ω∉E\omega \not\in E then {0≤X(ω)<αα1E(ω)=0  ⟹  X(ω)≥α1E(ω)\begin{cases} 0\le X(\omega)<\alpha \\ \alpha \mathbb{1}_{E}(\omega)=0 \end{cases}\implies X(\omega)\ge \alpha \mathbb{1}_{E}(\omega)hence E[X]≥αE[1E]  ⟺  E[X]α≥P(X≥α)\begin{gather*} \mathbb{E}[X]\ge\alpha \mathbb{E}[\mathbb{1}_{E}]\\ \iff\\ \frac{\mathbb{E}[X]}{\alpha}\ge\mathbb{P}(X\ge \alpha) \end{gather*} \end{proof}

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