Cindy Crawford: Opportunity Costs

When economists talk about opportunity costs usually people have some idea of what they are talking about, but not always. One good case I thought of to demonstrate opportunity costs is Cindy Crawford. Cindy was graduated as valedictorian of her high school class in 1984 and was awarded a scholarship to Northwestern University to study chemical engineering, but dropped out after one semester in order to model. According to Forbes in 1995 Cindy Crawford made $6.5 million (highest paid supermodel). Clearly, it was better that Cindy Crawford was a model than become a chemical engineer. Being a chemical engineer might have lead to good money, but Cindy’s comparative advantage was modeling. Economics studies how people can take their comparative advantages and use those advantages. Let's assume Cindy was better than most at chemical engineering, but let’s also assume she was much better at super modeling. Cindy should become a supermodel because that is her core competency and since she is better at this than chemical engineering it would make sense for her to become a supermodel rather than become a chemical engineer.