Data from the World Bank for 25 Western Hemisphere countries was used to examine the association between (average) female life expectancy (that is, the average lifespan of women in the country) and the average number of children women give birth to. Given below is the scatterplot for the data. The regression equation for this context is found to be:
y= 84.5 - 4.4x
where Y is female life expectancy in years, and is the average number of births per woman.
-Is the interpretation of the y-intercept meaningful in the context? Why?
A) No, since it is an example of extrapolation.
B) No, since the lowest value for average births per woman in the data set was 1.5.
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B

Question

Data from the World Bank for 25 Western Hemisphere countries was used to examine the association between (average) female life expectancy (that is, the average lifespan of women in the country) and the average number of children women give birth to. Given below is the scatterplot for the data.  The regression equation for this context is found to be:
 y= 84.5 - 4.4x
where Y is female life expectancy in years, and is the average number of births per woman.
-Is the interpretation of the y-intercept meaningful in the context? Why?
A) No, since it is an example of extrapolation. 
B) No, since the lowest value for average births per woman in the data set was 1.5. 
C) Both A and B 
D) Neither A nor B

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The y-intercept is not meaningful because it involves extrapolation beyond the range of the data, and the lowest value in the dataset is 1.5, making the y-intercept irrelevant.

Data from the World Bank for 25 Western Hemisphere Countries