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Nobel economics prize awarded to Harvard professor Claudia Goldin

By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Claudia Goldin
Nobel Prize for economics The winner of the 2023 Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel American economist Claudia Goldin is seen on a display as (L-R) the chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, Jakob Svensson, the Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and committee member Randi Hjalmarsson address a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 9, 2023. The Nobel Economics Prize was awarded to American economist Claudia Goldin for helping understand women's opportunities in the labour market. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP) (Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images) (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)
By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

STOCKHOLM — The Nobel Prize for economics has been awarded to a professor from Harvard University who researched the labor market gender gap.

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Claudia Goldin, 77, looked at 200 years of women in the workplace, sometimes trying to find missing data, confirming that women’s pay did not match men’s pay and that it has not, despite the fact that women get higher levels of education than men, The Associated Press reported.

“I’ve always been an optimist. But when I look at the numbers, I think something has happened in America, that we, in the 1990s, our labor force participation rate for women was the highest in the world, and now it isn’t the highest in the world,” she told the AP.

She said that what happens in a home influences a woman’s work life, including finding jobs that allow women to be on call at home and jobs that pay less. That means that not only does society and the economy influence the jobs women get and the pay they receive, but also the women themselves make decisions that keep the gender gap around.

“However, Goldin has shown that the bulk of this earnings difference is now between men and women in the same occupation, and that it largely arises with the birth of the first child,” the committee said, according to CNN.

She does not have a cure for the issue, Randi Hjalmarsson, a Nobel committee member, said. But it opens the door for policymakers to make changes.

“She explains the source of the gap, and how it’s changed over time and how it varies with the stage of development. And therefore, there is no single policy. So it’s a complicated policy question because if you don’t know the underlying reason, a certain policy won’t work,” Hjalmarsson said, adding, “By finally understanding the problem and calling it by the right name, we will be able to pave a better route forward.”

Goldin is only the third woman to win the Nobel for economics out of 93 laureates.

The Nobel prizes will be presented in December in Oslo and Stockholm, with the winners getting 11 million Swedish kronor, or about $1 million, an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma.

The Nobel Prize for economics is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, CNN reported. It was created by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

This is the second year in a row that the economic prize went to an American. Last year, it went to former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernake, Douglas Diamond from the University of Chicago and Philip Dybvig from Washington University in St. Louis, The Washington Post reported.

Other 2023 Nobel winners:

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