What Made Claudia Goldin The Third Woman To Win The Nobel Prize In Economics

Goldin's work looked into the last 200 years to understand the vast underrepresentation of women in the global labour market and the gender differences in earnings and how these factors have evolved. 

Professor Claudia Goldin was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for the year 2023 on Monday. Goldin became the third woman to win the economics Nobel, and the first one to receive it solo. She received the award for advancing the world’s understanding of women’s participation in the labour market. 

Goldin looked into data of the last 200 years to understand the reasons behind the vast underrepresentation of women in the global labour market and the gender differences in earnings and how these factors have evolved. 

Her work has helped explain that the majority of earnings difference between men and women now exists in the same occupation, and it mostly starts becoming relevant after women give birth to their first child. Delving deeper into the pay gap between men and women in modern times, Goldin’s work states that educational decisions, which have a crucial impact on career opportunities, are taken at a relatively early age. If young women form their expectations on the experiences of the previous generations, like their mothers who mostly didn’t go back to work until the children grew up, the development will often be slow in such instances. 

Goldin is currently the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She was the first woman to be offered tenure in the university’s economics department in 1989, a report from the New York Times stated. After completing her B.A. in Economics from Cornell University in 1967, Goldin went on to complete her M.A. and Ph.D. in the field of economics in 1969 and 1972 respectively, from the University of Chicago. 

Goldin served as the director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Development of the American Economy program from 1989 to 2017. Presently, she is a co-director of the NBER’s Gender in the Economy group. 

An economic historian and a labour economist, Goldin has conducted research covering a wide range of subjects, including the female labour force, the gender gap in earnings, income inequality, technological change, education, and immigration. Her research mostly tries to understand the present times through the lens of the past and explores the beginnings of today’s issues of concern. 

Goldin’s recent book, ‘Career & Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity’, looked into how generations of women have reacted to the issue of balancing career and family. Using her own research, Goldin’s book tried to provide a deeper understanding of the aspirations and problems faced by modern, educated women, with respect to the issue of balancing career, marriage, and family. 

Additionally, Goldin has authored several books, including ‘Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages’, and ‘The Race Between Education and Technology’, among others. 

Goldin is popular for her historical work on women in the US economy. Some of her best work focuses on the history of women’s quest for career and family, coeducation in higher education, the impact of the ‘Pill’ on women’s career and marriage decisions, women’s surnames after marriage as a social indicator, and the new lifecycle of women’s employment. 

She also served as the president of the Economy History Association from 1999-2000, and as the president of the American Economic Association from 2013-14.