Introduction

Sociologists often use occupational prestige as a method to describe the relative social class positions people have. The dataset “Prestige” in RStudio contains data on education, income, sex, prestige, and census. Using a linear regression model the variables “income” and “education” are used to explain the dependent variable of “prestige.”

library("Zelig")
library("stargazer")
library("car")
data("Prestige")
reg <- zelig(prestige ~ income + education, data = Prestige, model = "normal")
stargazer(reg, type= "html", style = "demography")
prestige
income 0.001***
(0.0002)
education 4.137***
(0.349)
Constant -6.848*
(3.219)
N 102
Log Likelihood -353.863
AIC 713.725
p < .05; p < .01; p < .001


After a further analysis, it is evident that education is a much larger driving force behind prestige than income. That is, for each additional year of education obtained, a person’s prestige score will go up by 4.137. This is a statistically significant relationship at the 99% confidence interval. On the contrary, for every additonal dollar earned, one’s prestige score will only increase by .001, although income is still statistically significant, it is not a stronger predictor of prestige than education.



The graph above depicts the relationship of prestige on income and education. After inserting a plane to the 3D scatterplot above, it is evident that there is a positive correlation amongst the variables.


Conclusion

Occupational prestige tells us a lot about societal norms and expectations on individuals. However, despite the emphasis on obtaining a high income in the 21st century, it is apparent that education is still highly valued when it comes to determing one’s prestige score. These results reflect certain values and beliefs people hold about education. As a theory for future study, it might be interesting to plot a time series graph and see if these views shift over the years in society. That is, will education always be the greater factor in determing occupational prestige over income?