Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and

correlation

CHAPTER 9
9. SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION AND CORRELATION

Linear regression and correlation is studying and measuring the linear relation ship
among two or more variables. When only two variables are involved, the analysis is
referred to as simple correlation and simple linear regression analysis, and when there are
more than two variables the term multiple regression and partial correlation is used.

Regression Analysis: is a statistical technique that can be used to develop a

mathematical equation showing how variables are related.

Correlation Analysis: deals with the measurement of the closeness of the relation ship
which are described in the regression equation.
We say there is correlation if the two series of items vary together directly or inversely.

Simple Correlation: Suppose we have two variables X  ( X 1 , X 2 ,... X n ) and

Y  (Y1 , Y2 ,...Yn )
 When higher values of X are associated with higher values of Y and lower values
of X are associated with lower values of Y, then the correlation is said to be
positive or direct.
Examples:
- Income and expenditure
- Number of hours spent in studying and the score obtained
- Height and weight
- Distance covered and fuel consumed by car.
 When higher values of X are associated with lower values of Y and lower values
of X are associated with higher values of Y, then the correlation is said to be
negative or inverse.
Examples:
- Demand and supply
- Income and the proportion of income spent on food.
The correlation between X and Y may be one of the following
1. Perfect positive (slope=1)
2. Positive (slope between 0 and 1)
3. No correlation (slope=0)
4. Negative (slope between -1 and 0)
5. Perfect negative (slope=-1)

The presence of correlation between two variables may be due to three reasons:
1. One variable being the cause of the other. The cause is called “subject” or
“independent” variable, while the effect is called “dependent” variable.

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

2. Both variables being the result of a common cause. That is, the correlation
that exists between two variables is due to their being related to some third
force.
Example:
Let X1= ESLCE result
Y1= rate of surviving in the University
Y2= the rate of getting a scholar ship.

Both X1&Y1 and X1&Y2 have high positive correlation, likewiseY1 & Y2 have
positive correlation but they are not directly related, but they are related to each
other via X1.

3. Chance: The correlation that arises by chance is called spurious correlation.

Examples:
 Price of teff in Addis Ababa and grade of students in USA.
 Weight of individuals in Ethiopia and income of individuals in Kenya.

Therefore, while interpreting correlation coefficient, it is necessary to see if there is any

likelihood of any relation ship existing between variables under study.
The correlation coefficient between X and Y denoted by r is given by

r
 ( X i  X )(Yi  Y ) and the short cut formula is
 ( X i  X ) 2  (Yi  Y ) 2
n  XY  ( X )( Y )
r
[n X 2  ( X ) 2 ] [n  Y 2  ( Y ) 2

r
 XY  nXY
[ X 2  nX 2 ] [  Y 2  nY 2 ]

Remark: Always this r lies between -1 and 1 inclusively and it is also symmetric.
Interpretation of r
1. Perfect positive linear relationship ( if r  1)
2. Some Positive linear relationship ( if r is between 0 and
1)
3. No linear relationship ( if r  0)
4. Some Negative linear relationship ( if r is between -1 and
0)
5. Perfect negative linear relationship ( if r  1)

Examples:

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

1. Calculate the simple correlation between mid semester and final exam scores of 10
students (both out of 50)

Student Mid Sem.Exam Final Sem.Exam

(X) (Y)
1 31 31
2 23 29
3 41 34
4 32 35
5 29 25
6 33 35
7 28 33
8 31 42
9 31 31
10 33 34
Solution:
n  10, X  31.2, Y  32.9, X 2  973.4, Y 2  1082.4
 XY  10331, X 2
 9920, Y 2
 11003

r
 XY  nXY
[ X  nX 2 ] [ Y 2  nY 2 ]
2

10331  10(31.2)(32.9)

(9920  10(973.4)) (11003  10(1082.4))
66.2
  0.363
182.5
This means mid semester exam and final exam scores have a slightly positive correlation.

Exercise The following data were collected from a certain household on the monthly
income (X) and consumption (Y) for the past 10 months. Compute the simple correlation
coefficient.

X: 650 654 720 456 536 853 735 650 536 666
Y: 450 523 235 398 500 632 500 635 450 360

 The above formula and procedure is only applicable on quantitative data, but when
we have qualitative data like efficiency, honesty, intelligence, etc we calculate what is
called Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient as follows:

Steps
i. Rank the different items in X and Y.
ii. Find the difference of the ranks in a pair , denote them by Di
iii. Use the following formula

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

2
6 Di
rs  1 
n(n 2  1)
Where rs  coefficient of rank correlatio n
D  the difference between paired ranks
n  the number of pairs
Example:
Aster and Almaz were asked to rank 7 different types of lipsticks, see if there is
correlation between the tests of the ladies.

Lipstick types A B C D E F G
Aster 2 1 4 3 5 7 6
Almaz 1 3 2 4 5 6 7

Solution:
X Y R1-R2 D2 6 Di
2
6(12)
(R1) (R2) (D)  rs  1  2
 1  0.786
n(n  1) 7(48)
2 1 1 1
1 3 -2 4
4 2 2 4 Yes, there is positive correlation.
3 4 -1 1
5 5 0 0
7 6 1 1
6 7 -1 1
Total 12 Simple Linear Regression
- Simple linear regression refers to the linear
relation ship between two variables
- We usually denote the dependent variable by Y and the independent variable by X.
- A simple regression line is the line fitted to the points plotted in the scatter diagram,
which would describe the average relation ship between the two variables. Therefore,
to see the type of relation ship, it is advisable to prepare scatter plot before fitting the
model.
Y    X  
Where :Y  Dependent var iable
X  independent var iable
  Re gression cons tan t
- The linear model is:   regression slope
  random disturbance term
Y ~ N (   X ,  2 )
 ~ N (0,  2 )

- To estimate the parameters (  and  ) we have several methods:

 The free hand method
 The semi-average method

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

 The least square method

 The maximum likelihood method
 The method of moments
 Bayesian estimation technique.

- The above model is estimated by: Yˆ  a  bX

Where a is a constant which gives the value of Y when X=0 .It is called the Y-
intercept. b is a constant indicating the slope of the regression line, and it gives a
measure of the change in Y for a unit change in X. It is also regression coefficient of Y
on X.
- a and b are found by minimizing SSE    2   (Yi  Yˆi ) 2
Where : Yi  observed value
Yˆi  estimated value  a  bX i

And this method is known as OLS (ordinary least square)

- Minimizing SSE    2 gives

b
 ( X i  X )(Yi  Y )   XY  nXY
 ( X i  X )2  X 2  nX 2
a  Y  bX

Example 1: The following data shows the score of 12 students for Accounting and Statistics
examinations.

a) Calculate a simple correlation coefficient

b) Fit a regression equation of Statistics on Accounting using least square estimates.
c) Predict the score of Statistics if the score of accounting is 85.

Accounting Statistics
  X2 Y2 XY
X Y
1 74.00 81.00 5476.00 6561.00 5994.00
2 93.00 86.00 8649.00 7396.00 7998.00
3 55.00 67.00 3025.00 4489.00 3685.00
4 41.00 35.00 1681.00 1225.00 1435.00

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

5 23.00 30.00 529.00 900.00 690.00

6 92.00 100.00 8464.00 10000.00 9200.00
7 64.00 55.00 4096.00 3025.00 3520.00
8 40.00 52.00 1600.00 2704.00 2080.00
9 71.00 76.00 5041.00 5776.00 5396.00
10 33.00 24.00 1089.00 576.00 792.00
11 30.00 48.00 900.00 2304.00 1440.00
12 71.00 87.00 5041.00 7569.00 6177.00
Total 687.00 741.00 45591.00 52525.00 48407.00
Mean 57.25 61.75
a)

The Coefficient of Correlation (r) has a value of 0.92. This indicates that the two
variables are positively correlated (Y increases as X increases).

b)

  where:

 
   Yˆ  7.0194  0.9560 X is the estimated regression line.
c) Insert X=85 in the estimated regression line.

Yˆ  7.0194  0.9560 X
 7.0194  0.9560(85)  88.28

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

Exercise: A car rental agency is interested in studying the relationship between the
distance driven in kilometer (Y) and the maintenance cost for their cars (X in birr). The
following summarized information is given based on samples of size 5.
2
i 1Yi
5
 314
5 2
 i 1 X i  147,000,000
i 1 X i  23,000 ,  i 1Yi  36 ,
5 5 5
 i 1 X i Yi  212, 000
a) Find the least squares regression equation of Y on X
b) Compute the correlation coefficient and interpret it.
c) Estimate the maintenance cost of a car which has been driven for 6 km

- To know how far the regression equation has been able to explain the variation in Y we
use a measure called coefficient of determination ( r 2 )

i.e r2 
 (Yˆ  Y ) 2
 (Y  Y ) 2
Where r  the simple correlatio n coefficient.

- r 2 gives the proportion of the variation in Y explained by the regression of Y on X.

- 1  r 2 gives the unexplained proportion and is called coefficient of indetermination.

Example: For the above problem (example 1): r  0.9194

 r 2  0.8453  84.53% of the variation in Y is explained and only 15.47% remains

unexplained and it will be accounted by the random term.

o Covariance of X and Y measures the co-variability of X and Y together. It is

denoted by S XY and given by

SX Y 
 ( X i  X )(Yi  Y )   XY  nXY
n 1 n 1

o Next we will see the relation ship between the coefficients.

2
S S
i. r  XY  r 2  X2 Y 2
S X SY S X SY

bS X rS
ii. r  b Y
SY SX

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

o When we fit the regression of X on Y , we interchange X and Y in all formulas, i.e.

we fit

Xˆ  a1  b1Y

b1 
 XY  nXY
 Y  nY
2 2

b1SY
a1  X  b1Y , r
SX

Here X is dependent and Y is independent.

Choice of Dependent and Independent variable

- In correlation analysis there is no need of identifying the dependent and independent

variable, because r is symmetric. But in regression analysis
If bYX is the regression coefficient of Y on X
bXY is the regression coefficient of X on Y
bYX S X bXY SY
Then r    r 2  bYX * bXY
SY SX
- Moreover, bYX and bX Y are completely different numerically as well as
conceptually.

- Let us consider three cases concerning these coefficients.

1. If the correlation is perfect positive, i.e. r  1 then the b values reciprocals of each
other.
2. If S X  SY , then irrespective of the value of r the b values are equal, i.e.
r  bYX  bXY ( but this is unlikely case)
3. The most important case is when S X  SY and r  1, here the b values are not
equal or reciprocals to each other, but rather the two lines differ , intersecting at the
common point ( X , Y )
 Thus to determine if a regression equation is X on Y or Y on X , we have to
use the formula r 2  bYX * bXY
 If r  [1,1] , then our assumption is correct
 If r  [1,1] , then our assumption is wrong

Example: The regression line between height (X) in inches and weight (Y) in lbs of
male students are:
4Y  15 X  530  0 and
20 X  3Y  975  0
Determine which is regression of Y on X and X on Y

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Lecture notes on Introduction to Statistics IX: simple linear regression and
correlation

Solution
We will assume one of the equation as regression of X on Y and the other as Y on X
and calculate r

Assume 4Y  15 X  530  0 is regression of X on Y

20 X  3Y  975  0 is regression of Y on X
Then write these in the standard form.
530 4 4
4Y  15 X  530  0  X   Y  bXY 
15 15 15
 975 20 20
20 X  3Y  975  0  Y   X  bYX 
3 3 3
2  4  20 
 r  bXY * bYX      1.78  1 ,
 15  3 
This is impossible (contradiction). Hence our assumption is not correct. Thus
4Y  15 X  530  0 is regression of Y on X
20 X  3Y  975  0 is regression of X on Y
To verify:
 530 15 15
4Y  15 X  530  0  Y   X  bYX 
4 4 4
975 3 3
20 X  3Y  975  0  X   Y  bXY 
20 20 20

 15  3  9
 r 2  bYX * bXY        0,1
 4  20  16

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