Family savings of the working population in Mindanao

Abstract

The study was conducted to understand the saving behavior of the working population in Mindanao using the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) datasets covering the periods 2003 to 2015. The study determined the factors which influence the families to save using Tobit regression, and compared the levels of family income, expenditures and savings of the regions of Mindanao. The study revealed that the real value of family savings increases as family head gets older, but it eventually declines as the head nears retiring age. Tobit estimates revealed that in Mindanao, age of the family head, household tenure, wages from agricultural and non-agricultural activities, income from entrepreneurial activities and cash assistance from abroad positively influence families to save; while sex of the family head, educational attainment, and number of young dependents negatively influence the family to save. Moreover, the family size, martial status and geospatial location of the family heads have showed both positive and negative influences in family savings for different years. Meanwhile, the ANOVA results revealed that in 2015 there were significant variation between and among the income, expenditure and savings of families in all regions of Mindanao. However, the Tukey-Kramer HSD test revealed that family savings in some regions in Mindanao have statistically same means such as the Zamboanga Peninsula and CARAGA, Northern Mindanao and Davao Region, and SOCCKSARGEN and ARMM, while other vary significantly from each other. Overall, the ANOVA results revealed that for 2015 the Davao Region has the highest mean family income and expenditure, while Northern Mindanao record the highest mean family savings. The ARMM region showed least value of mean income, mean savings and mean expenditures of families among the regions of Mindanao.