RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROSS MARGIN AND SOME SOCIO-ECONOMIC VARIABLES IN SOME SELECTED DATE PALM MARKETS OF JIGAWA STATE NIGERIA

The study examined the relationship between gross margin and some socio-economic variables in some selected date palm markets of Jigawa State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; determine the influence of some socio-economic variables on gross margin and examine the causations between socio-economic variables and gross margin. Analytical tool employed for the analysis were multiple regression and gross margin analysis. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed in selecting 122 respondents from a sampling frame of 305. The result revealed that the coefficients of age (584.88), selling price (3.97) and quantity sold (3076.22) were positive and statistically significant while cost of transportation (- 20.48), marketing experience (-533.81) and cost of the product were negative and statistically significant. The R² value of 0.79 indicates that about 79% of the variation in gross margin was explained by variables included in the model while the remaining 21% is due to error term. The F-statistics of 51.79 indicates that all the variables in the model were jointly and statistically affecting gross margin. There is no autocorrelation as indicated by the F-value of 0.3149 and no heteroscedasticity as indicated by the F-value of 0.4057. The Granger causality test indicates that there is no causation between gross margin and age, household size and marketing experience while there is unidirectional relationship between gross margin and years of formal education, selling price, cost of the produce and quantity sold and the is a bi-directional relationship between gross margin and cost of transportation. It was concluded that there is positive and significant relationship between gross margin and age, selling price and quantity sold while there is statistical and negative relationship between gross margin and cost of transportation, marketing experience and cost of the produce. No causation between gross margin and age, household size and marketing experience, while Years of formal education, selling price cost of and cost of transportation also causes gross margin.