Question

Mikes Pizza Parlor chains operates restaurants located in a five state area. The most successful locations for Mike’s Pizza Parlor are near college campuses. The managers believe that quarterly sales for these restaurants are related positively to the size of the student population. In other words, restaurants located near campuses with a large population tend to generate more sales than those located near campuses with smaller populations. Using regression analysis, what is the dependent and independent variable to use? Explain. Then, provide a separate example on your own.

Answer 1

Independent variables are variables that are manipulated or are changed by researchers and whose effects are measured and compared. The independent variables are called so because independent variables predict or forecast the values of the dependent variable in the model.

The dependent variables are called so because they are the values that are predicted or assumed by the independent variables. Thus dependent variables are subject to change with every change as done by the researcher.

In the current example, for Mike pizza, the sales of pizza is dependent on the location of the store and also the student population at that place, I.e whether the store is located near the campus and whether the student population at that place is large. Thus in this case, the sales is a dependent variable and the location and student population are independent variables.

To cite another example, the marks obtained by a student in an examination may be dependent on several variables such as revision done on the previous day, the amount of sleep he could manage the last night, whether he was hungry at the time of examination and and so on. In this case the marks obtained is a dependent variable and the other variables mentioned are independent variables.