Estimating the Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Organic Products: Application of Heckman Two Stage Method (Case of Organic Cucumbers)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Abstract

Considering the importance and extension of global markets of organic products, production and developing this market in Iran has a particular importance. In this study which has been conducted for organic cucumbers, 308 questionnaires have been completed randomly from Mazandaran province citizens in 2011. Tobit estimation model and Heckman Two Stage Method has been applied to analyze the collected data. The results reveal that consumers of different levels have the willingness to pay equal to $1 more than what it is paid for non-organic cucumber. Sex, age, household income, monthly consumption of cucumber and familiarity with organic products were the factors which had significant effect on tendency to pay. Apart from age, which had a negative relation to willingness to pay more, the other factors have a positive effect on the suggested price. In order to develop organic markets, it is suggested to separate the market for organic products from conventional products. Considering the weight of influence of each analyzed factor and taking in mind that the producers of these products are village dwellers, which improves income distribution & extensional and educational policies on consumption and willingness to pay is recommended which will eventually improve the village dwellers' welfare

Keywords

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics