Linear Regression

• Many public management problems can be
interpreted as relationships between two
variables
• Highway patrol might want to know whether the avg.
speed of motorists is related to the number of cars
on patrol
• Knowing this could lead to decision to increase/decrease
patrols
• A state wants to raise the beer tax and wants to
know how much revenue it would generate
• If a relationship exists between, say, population and
revenue from beer tax, then a “prediction” can be made as
to how much revenue the state could expect to receive