I have more of a theoretical question regarding the use of dummy regression. I know that one level of a categorical variable is used as a reference group, and the means of all subsequent levels are compared to the mean of the reference group, and that these differences give different p-values.
I understand how each level in a categorical variable is interpreted for a categorical variable, but I am not sure how the p-value in the reference group should be interpreted. This may be too simplistic, but I thought the interpretation of a reference group was not meaningful because I believe the mean is being compared with itself, and thus not useful. Is this an inappropriate way of conceptually understanding my question?