Claudia Goldin & Nobel Prize in Economics

In the last month,  October 2023 to be specific, Claudia Goldin, the American Professor of Economics at Harvard University, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her comprehensive research on women’s history in the labour market. This is especially remarkable since she is one of the three women who have received this prize in history, along with French American Esther Duflo and the American Elinor Ostrom.

Claudia Goldin, from a Jewish family, was born in New York City in 1946. After graduating from high school, she attended Cornell University, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. Her next step in life was an academic journey in the economics Ph.D. programme at the University of Chicago, initially with the intent of delving into the intricate world of industrial organisation. However, it was Gary Becker who sparked her curiosity in labour economics. Finally, Goldin’s doctoral dissertation was a profound exploration of slavery in antebellum cities and the southern industrial landscape of the United States. In 1972, she received her Ph.D., a testament to her dedication to industrial organisation and labour economics at the University of Chicago.

Claudia has been a pioneer in her field. Throughout her career, she has delved into the gender pay disparity, examining the historical trajectory of women’s engagement in the workforce over the past two centuries and contemplating the repercussions for the forthcoming landscape of the labour force. Her work earned her the prestigious Nobel Prize from the committee in Stockholm. She demonstrated that employment among married women decreased in the 1800s due to the shift in the economy from agriculture to industry. However, she also showed how women’s employment increased in the following century due to the growth of the service sector.

Dr. Claudia Goldin’s research elucidates the transformative nature of the 1970s for women in the United States, particularly marked by delayed marriage, an increase in the number of women with access to higher education, and remarkable progress in the labour market. Furthermore, she highlights how the rise in popularity of birth control pills during this period removed a significant incentive for early marriage, allowing women to have extra time to establish identities beyond domestic roles.

Nowadays, the gender wage gap is a trending topic in economics and finance, but Goldin has been addressing this issue for years. Her research reveals the temporal disparities in narrowing the gender wage divide as current advancements decelerate, resulting in women in the United States earning approximately 20 per cent less than their male counterparts. Significantly, her research shows that men and women in similar jobs have the most significant pay gap, which widens notably after a woman gives birth to her first child. The Nobel Committee recognised the broad societal significance of these findings.

Dr. Goldin downplayed the award and mentioned that her hope is for people to understand from her work that long-term changes are crucial for comprehending the economy and the labour market. The society and environment in which men and women grow up are some of the most critical factors that determine their behaviour and, ultimately, their economic outcomes. She also emphasised that achieving gender equality is impossible until we have equality within couples. While she acknowledges significant progress, she also recognises that there is still a long way to go, as differences remain evident, resulting in women continuing to bear a disproportionate share of household responsibilities.

Her colleagues within the industry also acknowledge Goldin’s work. For instance, her co-author Claudia Olivetti from Dartmouth College explains how Goldin has significantly shaped most current research on women and labour markets. Her early research continues to impact today, having made significant advances in the 1970s. Dr. Olivetti also underscores Goldin’s importance as a leader, as she has been, and continues to be, a mentor for many women within and outside her industry and field. By sharing her experience and demonstrating that women are more than capable of excelling in a primarily male-dominated world, Dr. Goldin is an inspirational example for females.

Dr. Leah Boustan, a professor at Princeton and a former student of Dr. Goldin’s, also spoke about the magnitude of her influence on labour economics. She explained how Goldin instructs her students to delve into the interactions between marriage, contraception, and labour market decisions over time. The number of threads that labour economists and economic historians can trace from Goldin’s work is limitless, and her impact will likely endure for many decades. The Nobel Prize is just the tip of the iceberg in her long-standing work, which began many years ago and will persist for many decades after receiving the award.

Besides her research, Golding is the author and editor of several books, among these Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (Oxford 1990), The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy (with G. Libecap; University of Chicago Press 1994), The Race between Education and Technology (with L. Katz; Belknap Press, 2008, 2010) are notable. This last one won the 2008 R.R. Hawkins Award for the most outstanding scholarly work in all arts and science disciplines.

Before the Nobel Prize, Goldin has also received many distinctions, among which we can highlight the IZA Prize in Labour Economics in 2016. In 2009, SOLE awarded Goldin the Mincer Prize for lifetime contributions to labour economics. She also received the 2019 BBVA Frontiers in Knowledge award and the 2020 Nemmers award, both in economics. As for some of her past positions, we can mention the presidency of the American Economic Association in 2013 and the presidency of the Economic History Association in 1999/2000. On top of that, she is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labour Economists (SOLE), the Econometric Society, and the Cliometrics Society.

1. Kabir Hassan is a Professor of Finance at the University of New Orleans, USA. KabirHassan63@gmail.com.

José Antonio Pérez Amuedo is a Ph.D. Student at the University of New Orleans, USA