An empirical researcher wants to identify the effect of HMO membership on health care costs and does so by comparing costs with membership across the states.This approach is best characterized as:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Cross-sectional regression analysis involves comparing data across different groups or individuals at one specific point in time, which is what the researcher is doing by comparing costs with and without HMO membership across different states. Time series analysis would involve analyzing data over a period of time, which is not what the researcher is doing. A quasi-experiment typically involves comparing two groups that were not randomly selected, which is not explicitly stated in the scenario. A random trial would involve randomly assigning individuals to either have HMO membership or not, which is not what the researcher is doing. Therefore, the best choice is option B.

An Empirical Researcher Wants to Identify the Effect of HMO