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Slope when you regress x on y instead of y on x

Question

Two variables have sample variances Var⁡(X)=10\operatorname{Var}(X)=10 and Var⁡(Y)=20\operatorname{Var}(Y)=20. Regressing yy on xx by OLS (with intercept) gives slope 11. What slope do you get when you instead regress xx on yy (with intercept)? Answer −100-100 if it cannot be determined.

Short answer

1/21/2. Both slopes share the covariance: βy∣x=Cov⁡/Var⁡(X)\beta_{y|x}=\operatorname{Cov}/\operatorname{Var}(X) and βx∣y=Cov⁡/Var⁡(Y)\beta_{x|y}=\operatorname{Cov}/\operatorname{Var}(Y). So βx∣y=βy∣x⋅1020=12\beta_{x|y}=\beta_{y|x}\cdot\tfrac{10}{20}=\tfrac12.

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