Investigating the economic factors affecting the acceptance of medicinal plants in Khorramabad city (Application: Tobit pattern and Heckman two-step method)

Medicinal plants are one of the valuable resources in the extensive level of Iran's nature that can play an important role in community health, job creation and increasing non-oil exports. The first step in market development and profitability of medicinal plants is to identify the behavior of consumers in the acceptance of medicinal plants. The main object of this study was to investigate the economic factors affecting the acceptance of medicinal plants in Khorramabad city using the Tobit model and Heckman two-stage method. The required data of the model were collected using simple random sampling method by 384 questionnaires. According to the research results, in the first stage, income with a coefficient of 0.26 has a positive and significant effect on consumption of medicinal plants. The variables of access cost, trust to the medical plants, as well as the learning to consumers and sellers variable with coefficients of 0.006, 0.008 and 0.02, respectively, have a positive effect on consumption. In the second stage, the variable of chemical insurance coverage with a coefficient of -0.07 has a negative and significant effect on consumption. and the variable of satisfaction with the positive effect of medicinal plants consumption with a coefficient of 0.16 has a positive and significant effect on the amount of medicinal plants consumption.