Claudia Goldin, a professor at Harvard University, has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her pioneering work on the history and causes of the gender gap in earnings and employment. She is the first woman to receive the prize in this category.
Goldin has collected and analysed over 200 years of data from the US, showing how women’s role in the labour market has changed over time. She has identified the main factors that have influenced women’s decisions regarding education, occupation, family and career.
Her research reveals that women’s participation in the labour market did not increase steadily, but followed a U-shaped curve. It declined with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early nineteenth century, and then rose again with the growth of the service sector in the early twentieth century. Goldin explained this pattern as a result of structural change and evolving social norms.
Goldin also showed that access to the contraceptive pill played a crucial role in increasing women’s education levels in the twentieth century, by allowing them to plan their careers more effectively. However, she found that the earnings gap between women and men did not close much for a long period of time, partly because young women’s expectations were shaped by the experiences of previous generations.
According to Goldin, most of the gender gap in earnings today is due to differences within occupations, rather than between occupations. She has shown that this gap largely arises with the birth of the first child, and reflects the unequal distribution of home and family responsibilities.
Goldin’s research has important implications for society and policy. It helps us understand the barriers that women face in the labour market, and the potential ways to overcome them.
“Understanding women’s role in the labour is important for society. Thanks to Claudia Goldin’s groundbreaking research we now know much more about the underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future,” says Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.
Goldin was born in 1946 in New York, NY, USA. She received her PhD in 1972 from University of Chicago, IL, USA. She is currently a professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. She will receive 11 million Swedish kronor as part of the prize.
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