I wonder if you could in theory separate out part of the prestige value. Part of the prestige value of a product would be related to its exclusivity—things that are easily got don’t confer prestige for obvious reasons.
So suppose you were looking at two schools that were equally prestigous but one was smaller, more expensive, required better social connections and higher academic achievement to access, and was more preferred by people in higher circles than the other. Then you might conclude that this smaller school derived more of its prestige from its exclusivity than the other school did, and hence on other indicators which might matter more, the larger, less exclusive school was actually better.
I wonder if you could in theory separate out part of the prestige value. Part of the prestige value of a product would be related to its exclusivity—things that are easily got don’t confer prestige for obvious reasons.
So suppose you were looking at two schools that were equally prestigous but one was smaller, more expensive, required better social connections and higher academic achievement to access, and was more preferred by people in higher circles than the other. Then you might conclude that this smaller school derived more of its prestige from its exclusivity than the other school did, and hence on other indicators which might matter more, the larger, less exclusive school was actually better.