Children and Household Savings in the Philippines

This paper examines the relationship between household savings and family size. Household savings are important indicators for family welfare not only in terms of its investment and income generation prospects but also, and perhaps more importantly given pervasive borrowing constraints and limited social security coverage, because it provides protection from income shortfalls. Descriptive and multivariate evidence on the relationship of household savings and family size are provided. The endogeneity of family size in the household savings equation, as argued for in the old-age security hypothesis, is properly considered by using instrumental variables estimation technique. The paper uses a recent nationally representative household survey in the analysis. The results show that, on average, the impact of additional children on household savings is negative and that the impact is regressive.