probability theory: question about conditional means

30 Views Asked by At

have a little trouble here with understanding one thing.

Let us assume $X,Y,Z$ three random variables $X$ is independent of $Z$. My question is if the following holds:

$$\mathbb E[XY|Z]=\mathbb E[X]\cdot \mathbb E[Y|Z]$$

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

No, this is not true in general. Suppose $X = Y$. Then since $X$ and $Y$ are independent of $Z$ we have $\mathbb{E}[XY|Z] = \mathbb{E}[X^2]$ but $\mathbb{E}[X]\mathbb{E}[Y|Z] = \mathbb{E}[X]^2$ so $\mathbb{E}[XY|Z] \ne \mathbb{E}[X]\mathbb{E}[Y|Z]$ unless $X$ is constant.