In a cross-sectional survey, a specific group is looked at to see if an activity, say alcohol consumption, is related to the health effect being investigated, say cirrhosis of the liver. If alcohol use is correlated with cirrhosis of the liver, this would support the hypothesis that alcohol use may cause cirrhosis.
Definition. A cost of labor, material or overhead that changes according to the change in the volume of production units. Combined with fixed costs, variable costs make up the total cost of production. While the total variable cost changes with increased production, the total fixed costs stays the same.
- Overhead. Absorption costing is a process of tracing the variable costs of. production and the fixed costs of production to the product. Variable Costing traces only the variable costs of production to the. product and the fixed costs of production are treated as period. expenses.