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American economic historian Claudia Goldin won the 2023 Nobel economics prize for her work examining wage inequality between men and women, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced.
“The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has today decided to award Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 to professor Claudia Goldin, Harvard University, USA, for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes and which barriers need to be addressed in the future.”
That was Hans Ellegren, the Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of sciences.
“Thanks to Professor Goldin’s ground-breaking research we know much more about the underlying factors driving women labour market outcomes and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future.”
That was Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, Jacob Svennson.
Ms Goldin's 1990 book "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women" was a hugely influential examination of the roots of wage inequality.
She has followed up with studies on the impact of the contraceptive pill on women's career and marriage decisions, women's surnames after marriage as a social indicator and the reasons why women are now the majority of undergraduates.
Randi Hjalmarsson is a member of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel:
“Claudia Goldin's discoveries have vast societal implications, and I don't think anyone says it better than Claudia Goldin herself. “By finally understanding the problem and calling it by the right name, we will be able to pave a better route forward.” She has shown us that the nature of this problem or the source of this underlying gender gap changes throughout history and with the course of development.”
Ingrid Werner, Professor in Financial Economics and member of the Prize Committee says Ms Goldin has studied gender inequality over many years.
“She showed that over history, a lot of the explanation between men and women in terms of their earnings could be derived from what kind of profession they were engaged in, that is what occupation they chose. Whereas nowadays, it's mostly within occupation that we see variation in earnings. So an academic like myself could be paid less because I'm a woman than a man who's an academic with the same conditions. And she's actually studied that very thoroughly more recently.”
Ms Werner emphasises the importance of Ms Goldin's work.
“I think it's important to re-emphasise that understanding women's participation in the labour force and her earnings potential is incredibly important for the society. Because if women are in some way hindered from participating or participate on unequal terms, we lose out in terms of skills, labour supply, and resources that could promote growth and prosperity. So it is super important.”
The prestigious award is the last of this year's crop of Nobel prizes and is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or nearly $1.56 million [[US$ 1 million]].
Ms Goldin, who in 1990 became the first woman to be tenured at the Harvard economics department, is only the third woman to win the Nobel economics prize.
She studied 200 years of women’s participation in the workplace, showing that despite continued economic growth, women’s pay did not continuously catch up to men’s and a divide still exists despite women gaining higher levels of education than men.
Only about half the world’s women have paid jobs, in contrast to 80 per cent of men.
This is Ms Goldin after being informed of her win.
“I'm obviously a little bit tired, but that's understandable. I am very honoured. There are many people whom I would like to thank and at the very top of the list. I thank those who have shown me by what they do and by how they think the importance of really big ideas in history and the enormous importance of long term change.”
She says her research uncovered some uncomfortable truths.
“As women have increased their role in the labor force, it's become more apparent that there are these huge residual differences and we stand back from them and we ask, why are there these differences? Women are now more educated than men. They graduate from college at much higher rates than men. They do better in high school than men do. So, why are there these differences?”
Ms Goldin, who is 77, hopes that her work will help spur change as it discovered a persistent pay gap — women in advanced economies earn, on average, about 13 per cent less than men.
“We realise that these differences, although some are found within the labor market, are really reflections of what happens within individuals’ homes. And they’re an interaction between what happens in the home and what happens in the labor market. And there is greater specialisation for women in the home, that women often take jobs that allow them to be on call at home, and those jobs often pay less. And so, ways in which we can even things out are to create more couple equity also leads to more gender equality.”
