Identifying Relationships Between Variables

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 4 of your textbook, including the “Cost of Living Brief Case” at the end of Chapter 4 on page 143, and access the Numbeo Cost of Living (Links to an external site.) web page.

In this assignment, you will be analyzing the cost of living in any U.S. city and creating a scatterplot to identify the relationships between variables. You may want to choose the city you live in, the city you were born in, or a city you may be interested in moving to in the future.

Go to the Numbeo Cost of Living (Links to an external site.) web page. In the “Select City” search box, type in the name of your city until it appears in the drop-down menu. Select your desired city. Note: For an accessible version of cost of living data, please contact your instructor.

A summary, along with cost of living index for the city you selected, will be displayed in the box at the top of the page. You will also see a breakdown of items with their associated cost. The first column is the item name, the second column is the cost of the item in your city, and the third column is the range of the cost for that item.

For this assignment, you need the first data item for each category and associated cost listed in the second column. For example, for “Utilities (Monthly),” choose the value for the first item under it—i.e., “Basic (Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Water, Garbage) for 915 sq ft Apartment.” For “Rent Per Month,” choose the value for the first item under it—i.e., “Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre.”

It is recommended that you use Excel to compile and analyze the data. Instructions for using Excel and other tools are on pages 139 to 142 of your text. However, you are welcome to use the tool of your choice.

Choose the following categories from the list (in your paper, call them 1–5 as listed below) and the numeric data from the first item listed in the dataset:

1. Utilities (Monthly)
   
   
   
   • Basic utilities (electricity, heating, cooling, water, garbage) for 915 square foot apartment
   
   
   
   


2. Sports and Leisure
   
   
   
   • Fitness club, monthly fee for one adult
   
   
   
   


3. Childcare
   
   
   
   • Preschool (or kindergarten), full-day daycare, private, monthly for one child
   
   
   
   


4. Rent Per Month
   
   
   
   • Apartment (1 bedroom) in city centre
   
   
   
   


5. Salaries and Financing
   
   
   
   • Average monthly net salary (After Tax)
   
   
   
   

In your Excel spreadsheet or tool of your choosing, you will have a table with five rows and two columns. The first column is numbered 1 through 5 and the second column will be the cost associated with the line item under the category for your city. In your Excel spreadsheet or other tool,

• Draw a scattered graph of the above selected data set.


• Display the regression line (also called trendline, linear model, and line of best fit) for the above categories in your city.


• Display the equation for the linear model and the R2 value on the graph. In Excel, right click on the line graph to display the options, scroll down and select the boxes for display equation on chart and display R-squared on chart options.

In your paper,

• Provide a URL of the website with your data along with your excel spreadsheet of the graph with equation and R2 value


• Analyze your findings on the best and worst predictor among these categories on the cost of living in your city.


• Assess the relationship between the variables, including any causation, correlation, or influences between the variables.

The Identifying Relationships Between Variables paper

• Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including any graphs, tables, title, or references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.


• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  
  
  
  • Title of paper
  
  
  • Student’s name
  
  
  • Course name and number
  
  
  • Instructor’s name
  
  
  • Date submitted
  
  
  
  


• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).


• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.


• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  
  
  
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
  
  
  
  


• Must use at least one credible source in addition to the course text.
  
  
  
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  
  
  
  


• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.


• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.