American economic historian Claudia Goldin has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her extensive research on wage disparities between men and women, as announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Her pioneering work offers a comprehensive analysis of women’s earnings and their participation in the labor market throughout history. Goldin, who made history herself by becoming the first tenured woman in the Harvard economics department in 1990, is only the third woman to receive the Nobel economics prize.
Her influential 1990 book, “Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women,” delves into the underlying causes of wage inequality.
Goldin has continued to contribute to the field with studies on the impact of birth control on women’s career and marital choices, the significance of women retaining their maiden names after marriage, and the factors behind women now outnumbering men in undergraduate education.
The Nobel economics prize is valued at 11 million Swedish crowns, or nearly $1 million.
