3) Even if the correlation is significant, this does not mean that there is a true connection between two variables.
A P value (the probability of being incorrect in concluding that there is a true association between the variables) was calculated and the lower the P value the greater the probability that there is a direct relationship between the two variables.
According to Sims [19] and Todd [20], if there is true simultaneity among a set of variables, there should not be a-priori distinction between endogenous and exogenous variables.
The ABCD score (range 0 7) is not a true continuous variable and thus we avoided an assumption of linearity by including ABCD rule in the model as a set of discrete independent categorical variables, with score in the low-risk ABCD stratum (0 3) as a reference category.
The first requirement is that the predictor variable must in fact be continuous, and a true categorical variable such as different types of drug, arbitrarily labelled from 1 to 4, cannot be treated as a continuous variable.
However, while the Common_direct_C variable is a proper bilateral variable capturing the true degree of interconnectivity between the two countries, the Geom_Mean_Direct_C is bilateral only by construction and may instead capture the degree of diversification of each country forming the pair in the maritime network.
Under the likelihood ratio theory, if the null model is true, D is a random variable with a chi-squared distribution (with a number of degrees of freedom given by the difference in number of parameters between the alternate and the null models).
The relative concentration of reported VAS scores ending with a 0 has been interpreted, as was done in the just mentioned studies in other contexts, as measurement errors, where people "round" their valuations to the nearest 10, while true HRQL is a continuous variable.
To be included as a true confounding variable rather than an effect modifier, the contextual and compositional variables created had to fulfill three requirements.
Third, while it's fashionable to say that the market volatility is a sideshow to the real economy -- I've said so myself and as far as equity spikes and dips, that's true -- the interest rate is a key variable in the growth outlook of the economy (review your IS curve if you don't believe me).
