CSRDA Discussion Paper Series

No. 110 Factorial Survey Experiments on the Social Prestige of Nonstandard Workers: Details of the Survey and Experiment and Preliminary Results
Rantaro Nasu
Rantaro NasuThe University of Tokyo
Social prestigeNonstandard employmentFactorial survey experiment
Goal 1: No PovertyGoal 8: Decent Work and Economic GrowthGoal 10: Reduced Inequalities
Survey on Social Prestige and Status Evaluation

The purpose of this paper is to describe the experimental design of a factorial survey experiment, which was independently conducted to investigate the social prestige of nonstandard workers in Ja- pan, as well as the design of the accompanying questionnaire survey. Additionally, this paper aims to confirm the descriptive distribution of social prestige derived from the survey. Traditional prestige research has focused primarily on differences in prestige by occupation (occupational prestige), yet the relationship between precarious employment, such as nonstandard work, and social prestige has not been fully explored. Although studies on occupational prestige have examined its distribution and cross-temporal and cross-societal consistency, limited attention has been given to the structure underlying these evaluations. To address this gap, a survey, including a factorial survey experiment, was conducted to examine the social prestige evaluations of nonstandard workers and the criteria guiding these evaluations. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a detailed account of the experimental and survey design. Preliminary analysis confirms the lower social prestige of nonstand- ard workers. Additionally, part-time workers generally hold lower social prestige than temporary workers do. When comparing the nonstandard worker penalty across occupations, it was observed that lower-prestige occupations exhibit a comparatively milder negative effect on prestige due to nonstandard worker status. Future research will further examine the social prestige of nonstandard workers in detail and clarify its relationship with job characteristics.