The impact of children on the components of parental savings: the case of rural Syria.

2 basic hypotheses relating the number of children in households to the income and expenditures of parents are tested. The 1st argues that as the number of children in households increases parental income increases; and the 2nd that as the number of children in households increases parental expenditures decrease. Employing tabular and partial correlation technics the authors find support for both hypotheses. The results of this research are related to the authors earlier work on the effects of children on household income and expenditures and discussed in terms of the direct and indirect effects of children on household savings. 2 new variables are analyzed--household savings and the percentage of household income saved. Data on members of 300 rural households in Syria in 1980 show that there is a marked tendency for the absolute savings of households to increase as the number of children in households increases. As the number of children in households increases the percentage of total income which is saved decreases. The data clearly show that the number of children in household affects both absolute and relative savings in a negative manner.