Paris Hilton's Latest Career Move

A friend told me that there's one topic I should write about if I wanted to attract more visitors to my blog. That topic is not Paris Hilton, but sex is an important reason for her notoriety.

In any case, her forthcoming jail sentence got me thinking about labor economics (!). Her career has pretty much been based on fame and not much else. It's not clear she is either a gifted actress or performer (if you don't believe me, just try listening to a couple of songs from her CD, Paris). She's famous because......well, because she is. So how can someone with that set of skills ensure that she can continue to be valuable in the marketplace and perhaps become even more valuable?

I would imagine that a prison sentence would lower earnings potential for most people. But Paris Hilton is one of those rare few for whom being sent to jail could be a God-sent gift. If she can manage to avoid serious trouble in those three weeks behind bars, just think of the book contract, the reality show, the commercials, the money.... It's not hard to understand why it might be optimal to forgo all appeals and get inside that prison cell as soon as they take her.

So what does this have to do with economics? In 1972, Sherwin Rosen, one of the truly great labor economists of the postwar era, published a paper entitled "Learning and Experience in the Labor Market." The paper provides a stepping-stone theory of how current career choices affect future opportunities. There are certain jobs--as unpleasant and low-paying as they might be--that provide a lot of training that comes in handy in the future. Just think of tax attorneys plugging away in low-pay bureaucratic Washington for a few years, before cashing in those connections in private practice.

The moral of the story: Jail as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Maybe Lindsay Lohan should work through the Rosen paper in the next few days as well.

(Sherwin Rosen passed away prematurely at the age of 62 in 2001. Among many other classic contributions, he formulated the framework for the current discussion over the very high earnings of superstars. He was a teacher, a collaborator, a friend, and one of the most decent human beings in the profession. Many of us sorely miss him).

Comments

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Interesting post. I can definitely see why you'd find Paris and Lindsay interesting. It seems like celebrities like Paris Hilton appeal to us for the same reason television shows and novels in general appeal to us. Paris seems to be telling a story about her life, which is told better today because of the improved information technology through blogs and cellphone cameras. Her life is like a soap opera, and that she is going to jail is actually interesting to viewers. That's the difference between her and most people. Even though many people may be trying to tell the "Me Story," most don't care about that story. So I wonder how one gets catapaulted into that place where so many care in the first place? There's certain necessary conditions - like physical beauty and wealth. But they're not sufficient conditions.

Also, the Paris sex tape was so successful at getting her this ongoing gig that it's therefore not surprising to continually see more of these sex tapes showing up all the time by unknown, but aspiring young "It' girls.

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