Over the past decade, there has been a strong positive correlation between teacher salaries and prescription drug cost. (a) Do you think paying teachers more causes prescription drugs to cost more? Explain. (b) What lurking variable might be causing the increase in one or both of the variables? Explain.

Glencoe Algebra 1, Student Edition, 9780079039897, 0079039898, 2018
18th Edition
ISBN:9780079039897
Author:Carter
Publisher:Carter
Chapter4: Equations Of Linear Functions
Section4.5: Correlation And Causation
Problem 13PPS
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Over the past decade, there has been a strong positive correlation between teacher salaries and prescription drug cost.

(a) Do you think paying teachers more causes prescription drugs to cost more? Explain.
(b) What lurking variable might be causing the increase in one or both of the variables? Explain.

Expert Solution
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a) Even though there is a strong positive correlation between teacher salaries and prescription drug costs, it can not be concluded that paying teachers more causes prescription drugs to cost more as correlation does not imply causation. This means that even if there is a correlation between two variables, it is not necessary that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between them. The high value of correlation may be due to any other variable that is affecting these two variables but is not estimated in the analysis.

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