The effect of economic, social and environmental factors on willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil in Zahedan using Heckman's two-stage method

A non-transgenic plant is a plant whose genetic structure has not been changed and has a significant effect on health. Edible oil is one of the non-transgenic and organic food products, which is very important for consumers in terms of food health and hygiene. Identifying the determining factors of the willingness to pay for non-transgenic products is an important step before identifying the market needs and marketing these products. In fact, examining the factors affecting the willingness to pay and consumers' tendency towards non-genetically modified products and prioritizing these factors can provide a clear and complete picture to the planners and policy makers of the environment in order to have a comprehensive understanding. From the level of demand and the structures affecting it, they need to have complete planning for the implementation of support policies, and in addition, this research helps marketers by providing sufficient information to identify target markets and also identify consumption. and their willingness to pay to improve and increase their performance.

Goods and services that do not have a market, or when the market is unsuccessful in providing information, do not have a certain price, and the necessity of determining prices is to find a criterion of willingness to pay. Willingness to pay is the amount of money a consumer is willing to pay for a good or service and is often used to estimate the value of a good or service (Pitafy and Rumasset, 2003). In fact, willingness to pay is the maximum amount that consumers are willing to pay for a product or service. Willingness to pay is formed based on the consumer's perceived value of the desired product as well as the value and price of competing products. Expressed or expressed preferences can be used to estimate willingness to pay. The expressed preferences are called the data obtained from the survey. In most of the pricing decisions, the basis of stated preferences is used. The reason for using such preferences is because the market has information about the fact that some consumers are willing to pay a higher price than the market price or that some consumers It shows that they are buying the product at a price lower than the market price, and on the other hand, there is not enough and appropriate information available for some new goods and new services. One of the most important valuation methods based on stated preferences is conditional valuation. In conditional valuation, a hypothetical market is created and the willingness of consumers to pay for goods is estimated. There are four methods of playing bid, pay card, double choice and open end in conditional valuation. The double selection method includes two other sub-methods, which include one-dimensional double selection and two-dimensional double selection (Erfanifar et al, 2022). In conditional valuation based on the open-end method, consumers are asked to express their willingness to pay for using a product and service. In this method, people answer the questions easily and easily.In this research, the influencing factors on the willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil in Zahedan city were investigated using Heckman's two-stage method in 2022, and the statistical sample of this research was 300 citizens of Zahedan. Willingness to pay for transgenic and non-transgenic oil can depend on various reasons, such as individual attitude towards the environment, economic-livelihood, cultural status, household dimension, the volume of oil use, etc. To identify and separate the variables that affect the decision of willingness to pay and the amount of willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil (the action stage after the decision), Heckman's two-stage model was estimated. Thus, the model has one dependent variable and seven independent variables described in table (1).

The results of the ordinary least squares model show that the variables of education, household income, amount of transgenic oil consumption, and consumer's attitude towards health have a positive and significant effect on the willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil, but the variable of the household dimension on the willingness to pay non-GMO oil has had a negative and significant effect. The most positive effect on the willingness to pay for non-GM oil belongs to the consumer's attitude towards the environment, that is, the more the consumer has information and awareness about the benefits of non-GM oil and its impact on the health of the family and the environment. This has led to a change in the individual's choice, and the person replaces the non-transgenic oil in their shopping basket as much as possible with the transgenic oil, and in a way, the consumer is willing to pay a higher price than the transgenic oil. This is because they know that non-GMO oil is produced naturally and cares about the health of the person and does not cause any harm to the environment. After the consumer's attitude, the person's education has the greatest impact on the willingness to pay for non-GM oil. There is a close relationship between education and the consumer's attitude towards the environment, in such a way that with the educational and scientific growth of the person, the person's attitude is affected and with the change of the consumer's attitude towards the environment, the consumer of non-transgenic oil prefers it to GM oil and leads to a change in the individual's choice. Since non-transgenic oil is considered as a normal commodity, there is a direct relationship between income and the willingness to pay for transgenic oil, so that the higher the income of the household, the greater the purchasing power of the household, and due to the higher price of non-transgenic oil, compared to for transgenic, households tend to pay more for the consumption of non-transgenic oil. There is a positive and significant relationship between the willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil and the consumption of transgenic oil, which indicates that there is a substitution relationship between transgenic and non-transgenic oil. In such a way that with the increase in the willingness to pay for non-GM oil, the consumption of GM oil increases, and finally, the household size variable has a negative and significant effect on the willingness to pay for non-GM oil, that is, the larger the size and size of the household becomes, due to The increase in household expenses due to the higher price of non-transgenic oil compared to transgenic oil reduces the purchasing power of the household, and as a result, the willingness to pay for non-transgenic oil decreases. Therefore, it is suggested that by providing information and increasing awareness about the benefits of using non-genetically modified oil, the consumer's attitude towards the use of non-genetically modified oil should be influenced in order to protect the environment in order to improve the willingness to pay for non-genetically modified oil.