Nobel economics prize for studies on gender pay gap

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 09/10/2023

Claudia Goldin, American economic historian, gets this year’s Nobel prize in economics for her work on gender pay gap. She has “advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”, the Swedish academy of science says. The award comes the same year as World Economic Forum estimates it will take another 131 years to reach full gender parity if improvements continue at the present modest speed and the average gender pay gap in the EU is 13%.

“Claudia Goldin’s research has given us new and often surprising insights into women’s historical and contemporary roles in the labour market”, the Nobel Prize foundation says at its website.

“Over the past century, the proportion of women in paid work has tripled in many high-income countries. This is one of the biggest societal and economic changes in the labour market in modern times, but significant gender differences remain. It was first in the 1980s that a researcher adopted a comprehensive approach to explaining the source of these differences.”

“This year’s economic sciences laureate, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. By trawling through the archives and compiling and correcting historical data, Goldin has been able to present new and often surprising facts.” 

“The fact that women’s choices have often been, and remain, limited by marriage and responsibility for the home and family is at the heart of her analyses and explanatory models.”

“Her insights reach far outside the borders of the US and similar patterns have been observed in many other countries. Her research brings us a better understanding of the labour markets of yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

“I have always thought of myself as a detective,” Goldin says. “The detective always believes there is a way of finding the answer!” 

The prize in economy is not a “real” Nobel prize as it was added to the list of Nobel prizes in 1968 in connection with a Swedish central bank anniversary. The prize “in memory of Alfred Nobel” has been awarded three women so far, Elinor Ostrom in 2009, Esther Duflo in 2019 and Claudia Goldin in 2023.

Four of in total ten Nobel prizes this year have gone to women: Goldin in economics, Narges Mohammadi got the prize in peace , Anne L’Huillier shares the the prize in chemistry and Katalin Kariko shares the prize in medicine.

Goldin is professor in economics at Harvard university. She was born 1946 in New York and grew up in the Bronx. Her research is focused on female labour force and gender gaps in pay, tech change, education and immigration.