Money v.s. prestige: Cultural attitudes and occupational choices

•I study how cultural attitude toward income/prestige affect occupational choices.•Both income and prestige are positively valued in occupational selection.•The cultural attitudes reinforce the positive values on income and prestige.•Neighborhood ethnic density positively relates to the effect of cultural attitudes.

This paper studies the occupational choices of highly educated native-born American males and links their choices to cultural attitudes toward pecuniary rewards and social prestige in their ancestral countries. These cultural attitudes were reported in the World Values Survey, which surveyed individuals' opinions on a series of subjects in various societies. The empirical analysis verifies that cultural attitudes play a significant role in occupational choices: when other factors that may be correlated with one's opportunity and advantage are controlled for, a stronger cultural demand for pecuniary rewards leads individuals to choose more lucrative jobs, and a stronger demand for social prestige leads them to choose more prestigious jobs. The paper further explores the neighborhood effects on cultural transmission and finds a positive relationship between the proportion of the population from the same ancestry in the residential area and the effects of cultural attitudes on occupational selection.