The meaning of industrial prestige

In light of the growing interest in industries as distinct units in the structure of stratification, this research explores the dimensions underlying the social evaluation of industries, with an emphasis on the meaning of industrial prestige. The data collected for this purpose consist of multiple ratings of the banking and insurance industries by a national sample of Israelis. The empirical findings indicate, first, that there exists virtual concensus about all the ratings across various demographic and socioeconomic categories and, second, that industrial prestige is related to instrumental rather than normative considerations of industrial behavior. These results are discussed in terms of the specific characteristics of banking and insurance as well as in terms of the general debate over the meaning of prestige scales of occupations.