Role of Rural Markets in Rural People’s Economic Prosperity in Guilan Province of Iran

The local market plays an important role in rural development, given that it is a place to meet the economic needs of rural and urban people, based on the supply of rural products. This research aimed at investigating the role of local markets in the economic prosperity of the rural people in Guilan province of Iran by identifying and ranking the economic components. It was a descriptive study in terms of the purpose and a field-based in terms of data collection. In this regard, 195 samples of dealers in 77 local markets in Guilan province were selected by cluster random sampling method and data were collected through a questionnaire. Using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method, the estimated measurement model was first measured using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for reliability and validity testing of the model; and in the second step, the structural model for the proportionality test of overall model was investigated. The study results showed that the local market development had a positive effect on the components of economic prosperity including increase in production, income, employment and diversity, and the prices of products, and the determination of the path coefficient in creating economic prosperity was equal to 0.73.