- Suppose that the energy research consulting company that you work for has tasked you with determining: Is purchasing premium gasoline better than purchasing regular (unleaded) gasoline? There are many things that you need to consider as you conduct your research. The first thing that you will need to do is to define what you mean by "better" in your research. Then you will need to identify all of the factors/variables that might matter in answering your question - distance travelled, amount of traffic, usual speed limit, type of car, age of car. Also, does price level of each of the types of gasoline matter? What about price differences?
Note that there is no single answer to this question. And you don't want an answer that is so specific that it can't be generalized to other situations. I urge you to think creatively about the question using the data collection concepts discussed in class. In particular, describe:
a) an ideal randomized (controlled) experiment to answer the question: Is purchasing premium gasoline better than purchasing regular (unleaded) gasoline? (note that I use the term ideal, as it might be an experiment that is ideal but not implementable in the field);
b) an observational cross-sectional data set that would allow you to answer this question.........