A geographer conducts a study of the relationship between th

A geographer conducts a study of the relationship between the level of economic development of a nation (measured in thousands of dollars for per capita GDP)and the birth rate (average number of children per adult woman). For one analysis of the data, a part of the computer printout reports the following. Statistic correlation Value   -0.460 SE 0.170 A. Explain how to interpret the reported value of the correlation. B. Can you tell whether the sign of the slope in the corresponding prediction equation would be positive or negative? Why?

Solution

A) the value of the correlation is -0.460. The negative sign implies that the variables under study move in the opposite direction, that is when one increases, the other decreases and vice versa. The value 0.460 means that for a unit change in the indepednt variable, the dependent variable changes by 40.6%.

B) the slope also will be negative, since the variables are negatively correlated.