Track: High School STEM Competition

Abstract

This project investigates the relationship between restaurant ratings and prices in the two cities Beijing and Los Angeles. The purpose of this study is to aid customers in restaurant selection by informing them what cuisine prices to expect when browsing restaurant ratings. 50 restaurants were selected from each city through stratified and systematic sampling. In the first part of the project, Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient tests were conducted to measure the correlation between restaurant ratings and prices. The results indicate a significant positive relationship. Regression lines were also constructed to visually display the trend between the two variables. Customers may use these regression lines to estimate the average prices of a meal given the restaurant’s rating. In the second part of the study, comparisons between the Beijing and Los Angeles sample were made via two-sample t-tests. The two cities’ similar urbanization, modernization, and income levels diminish confounding variables between them. The tests show significant discrepancies, indicating that restaurants in Los Angeles have higher ratings and prices than those in Beijing. This difference can be attributed to several factors, including labor cost, food culture, and consumption.