[Math] Interpretation of market completeness: full row rank payoff matrix

economicslinear algebramatrices

Suppose that there are $K$ assets and $S$ states of nature. The assets' payoff is represented by the matrix
$$
\underbrace{R}_{S\times K}=\begin{pmatrix}
r_{11}&\cdots& r_{K1}\\
\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\
r_{1S}&\cdots& r_{KS}
\end{pmatrix},
$$
that is the $k$-th column of $R$ is the payoff vector $r_k$ of asset $k$. If $z$ is a portfolio of assets ($z$ is dimension $K\times 1$), then the payoff of $z$ is $Rz$.

The market is complete if $R$ has rank $S$ (i.e. full row rank). Is there an intuition for the word 'complete' in this context? I think I used to understand this using span but now I am getting confused. Can someone help me please?

Best Answer

It means that it is possible to construct a complete set of state contingent claims. For any $x$ ($x$ is dimension $S\times1$) there exist a $z$ such that $x=Rz$.

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