Analyzing the Function of Weekly Markets in Life Quality of Rural Areas in Gonbad Kavous County of Iran

Markets have been the places where earliest human communities have formed based on essential social needs. This survey evaluated and explained the function of weekly street markets in improvement of qualitative indexes of life and conditions of livelihood in the rural families. It was an applied study in terms of objective, and a descriptive-analytical and survey study in terms of methodology. On this basis, different questions were prepared in different measuring scales (names, orders, and relative scales) within questionnaires. The statistical population included the household heads settled in the villages that had weekly street markets in three sub-districts of the studied region. In order to analyze and measure the data, correlation analysis tests such as Chi-Square and Phi-Cramer as well as mean value comparison tests of Freidman and Kruskal Wallis were used. The study results showed that there was a significant relationship at a confidence level of 99 percent between formation and establishment of the weekly street markets in some of the villages and the improvement of economic and social indexes such as entrepreneurship, income increase, job variety, reduction of expenses, and increase in motivation to stay in the villages. In addition, the results from Freidman and Kruskal Wallis tests on the comparison of physical development indexes in different villages showed that establishment of the weekly markets had significant differences in improvement and elevation of some physical factors; accordingly, to an acceptable extent, improvement of physical situations in the villages depended on the formation of markets in the studied rural areas.