Becoming the third woman among the 93 economics laureates to win the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 so far, Harvard professor Claudia Goldin has been recognised for having “advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
A US-based economic historian and a labour economist, Goldin’s research covers a wide range of topics, including the female labour force, the gender gap in earnings, income inequality, technological change, education, and immigration.
“Most of her research interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current issues of concern,” according to Harvard University’s website, where Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics.
She is best known for her historical work on women in the US economy.
Born in New York, US, in 1946, Claudia Goldin attended the Bronx High School of Science. Passionate about detective work, Goldin planned to study microbiology as a student at Cornell University.
“But, it wasn’t long before she discovered economics as a tool to delve into life’s mysteries, and since then she has become known as an economic historian whose research sheds new light on the roots of present-day policy questions,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Goldin was a bright student. Between 1963 and 1967, she attended Cornell University where Goldin did a BA in Economics. Immediately after this, she pursued an MA in Economics and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago between 1967 and 1972.
In 1976, she wrote her first book Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820 to 1860: A Quantitative History.
Her book, Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women, written in 1990, was the first detailed account of how women’s labour force participation and earnings evolved in the US.
Till now, she has written 10 books covering gender gap, economic history of women, income inequality, corruption and reform. Apart from this, she has also written a large number of articles and book chapters.
Before joining Harvard University, where she was the first woman to earn tenure in the economics department, Goldin taught at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is the recipient of several teaching awards.
She served as president of the American Economic Association (AEA) from 2013-2014 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Jessie Romero interviewed Goldin at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., in December 2014.
From 1984 to 1988, she was editor of the Journal of Economic History.
In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. The first prize in economic sciences was awarded to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen in 1969.
Last year’s winners were former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, Douglas W Diamond and Philip Dybvig for their research into bank failures that helped shape America’s aggressive response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Eleven laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2023, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from effective mRNA vaccines and attosecond physics to fighting against the oppression of women.
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