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Opportunity Cost / Trade Offs: What I gave up to pursue a PhD
Greetings all. One of the most important topics this week is that of opportunity cost given that we can’t have everything we want in life as scarcity is always among us (Fagan, 2020)
In 2008, I had an opportunity to move into the private sector back in Chicago, but I decided to stay in North Macedonia (a country in South East Europe) and purse a PhD in Economics.
I gave up a potentially good salary to stay employed in a teaching position at a university (lower pay than in the private sector) and pay for a PhD program in Economics. I completed my doctoral degree in 2013.
What are my opportunity costs? Well:
Lost new salary in private sector
Lost time to pursue a PhD, pay tuition for doctoral degree
Gained a PhD but lower wages in the public sector. But for me the gain of the PhD was much more significant!
