Nobel Prize in Economics 2023

Nobel Prize in Economics 2023

News: Claudia Goldin, a Professor of Economics at Harvard University, has been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2023 (also referred as the Nobel Prize in Economics) for her contributions to understanding women’s labour market outcomes.

About Claudia Goldin:
• Claudia was born in New York, in 1946 and completed her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1972. She is known for her pioneering research into women’s roles in the economy, with a focus on historical data from the United States.

Key learnings from her work:
• Education and the Contraceptive Pill: Women’s education levels have steadily risen throughout the 20th century and often surpass those of men in high-income countries. Access to contraception, notably the contraceptive pill, played a vital role in enabling women to plan their careers more effectively.
• U-Shaped Female Labor Force Participation: Female participation in the labor market doesn’t show a consistent upward trend over time. Instead, it follows a U-shaped curve. Initially, it declined as society shifted from agrarian to industrial in the early 19th century. It later increased with the growth of the service sector in the early 20th century. This pattern is influenced by changes in economic structure and evolving societal norms about women’s roles.
• Impact of Motherhood: Goldin’s research indicates that the bulk of the gender earnings gap now exists between men and women in the same occupation and it primarily emerges after the birth of the first child. This suggests that parenthood significantly influences the gender pay gap in contemporary times.
• Persistent Earnings Gap: Despite modernization, economic growth and increased female employment, the earnings gap between men and women remained largely unchanged for a long time. This is because young women’s expectations for their careers are often shaped by the experiences of previous generations such as their mothers who delayed their return to work until their children were older.