ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that different periods during development, as well as different economic theories, can be distinguished in terms of functional and non-functional understandings of economic activity in general and saving in particular. Similarly based on rational economic models are those theories that assert that people save for interest. M. Tysoe also found a surprising number of children with savings accounts and comments on the surprising degree of economic sophistication shown by these children. Children's saving has been seen as a rather minor part of how children learn to buy or work or behave with money. For children involuntary saving may take place when parents give them money with the proviso that it is saved, perhaps by being put in a post office account. The majority of the children in both of their age groups said that they were saving for a special purpose, with Christmas presents being the most common target.
