Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
This week The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 to Claudia Goldin, Harvard University, “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
Claudia Goldin is a professor in economics with a dedicated interest in economic history and labour economics. She has published a wide range of articles and books about the female labour force, the gender gap in earnings and income inequality.
She is best known for her work on US women's earnings and labour market participation throughout history and has demonstrated how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time. See the illustration of the U-shaped curve above.
But where to start if you want to explore the research of Claudia Goldin?
What to read by Goldin?
We have asked Associate Professor, PhD Birthe Larsen, who also does research on inequality in the labour market. She hopes that the Nobel Prize can help focus even more on economic research into gender inequality in the future.
Every time I do research on inequality between men and women, I come across Claudia Goldin's literature. She is so voluminous and impossible to avoid
says Birthe Larsen, who just published a new book herself on inequality: ‘Hvorfor stiger uligheden – og hvad gør vi ved det?’. [Why does the inequality increase - and what do we do about it?].
Birthe Larsen recommends these three articles:
- Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2002). The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions. The Journal of Political Economy, 110(4), 730–770.
About the pill's importance for women's access to the labour market.
- Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2000). Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill. The American Economic Review, 90(2), 461–465.
About the impact of the pill on women's opportunities for marriage and career.
- Goldin, C., & Rouse, C. (1997). Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of “Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians. National Bureau of Economic Research.
About how women's chances of gaining a position in an orchestra increased by 25% if they performed their audition anonymously behind a curtain instead of in public.
You can read many of Claudia Goldin's publications through CBS Library:
Bonus information
- The Royal Swedish Academy says that they have chosen the laureate because she has advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes. Read their reasoning.
- Find more: Claudia Goldin's website at Harvard University
- Birthe Larsen is an Associate Professor, PhD at the Department of Economics and researches inequality in the labour market. Find her research in the CBS Research Portal.
Illustrations: Claudia Coldin - Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach and The U-shaped curve - © Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences