Economist Claudia Goldin Wins Nobel Prize for Work That Could Help Close the Gender Pay Gap
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics went to Claudia Goldin from the United States for her work on the difference in pay between men and women, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Monday.
The award, which is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the last of this year’s Nobel awards. It is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, which is a little less than $1 million.
“This year’s Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labor market participation through the centuries,” the awarding body said in a statement.
“Her research reveals the causes of change as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap.”
This year’s Nobel Prizes have been given to a Norwegian playwright, an Iranian campaigner, atomic pictures, and “quantum dots,” as well as the economics prize.
Goldin is only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics. In 1990, she was the first woman to be paid a salary to teach economics at Harvard.
The head of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Hans Ellegren, said, “She was shocked and very, very happy.”
The 1990 book “Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women” by Goldin was a very important look at the causes of pay inequality.
She has since done more research on the topic of how the birth control pill affects women’s choices about careers and marriage, how women’s last names change after marriage as a social sign, and why women now make up the majority of college students.
Randi Hjalmarsson, who is on the committee for the Economic Prize, said, “Claudia Goldin’s discoveries have huge effects on society.” “By finally understanding the problem and calling it by the right name, we will be able to pave a better route forward.”
Alfred Nobel, the dynamite creator and businessman, set up prizes for science, writing, and peace. The economics award is not one of those prizes; it was added by Sweden’s central bank in 1968 and is funded by that country’s government.
The first economics prize was given out the next year. Notable minds and professors have won it before, including Friedrich August von Hayek, Milton Friedman, and, most recently, U.S. economist Paul Krugman.
Along with former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, two other U.S. experts got an award last year for their work on how to prevent an even worse economic crisis like the Great Depression by regulating banks and giving money to failing lenders.
Most of the economics Nobel prizes have been given to men, just like most of the other Nobel prizes. In the past, only two women have won: Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Esther Duflo ten years later.
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