Nobel economics prize goes to Harvard's Claudia Goldin for research on the workplace gender gap

STOCKHOLM — Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University professor, was awarded the Nobel economics prize on Monday for research that helps explain why women around the world are less likely than men to work and to earn less money when they do. Fittingly, the announcement marked a small step toward closing a gender gap among Nobel laureates in economics: Out of 93 economics winners, Goldin is just the third woman to be awarded the prize and the first woman to be the sole winner in any year.

Only about half the world’s women have paid jobs, in contrast to 80% of men. Economists regard the gap as a wasted opportunity: Jobs have often failed to go to the most qualified people because women either weren’t competing for work or weren't being properly considered. In addition, a persistent pay gap — women in advanced economies earn, on average, about 13% less than men — discourages women from pursuing jobs or continuing their education to qualify for more advanced job opportunities.

Correcting the record revealed some striking surprises. During the Industrial Revolution, as the U.S. and European economies rapidly expanded and shifted from farms to factories, women’s share of the workforce actually declined. Before Goldin's work advanced public understanding, researchers, unfamiliar with older data, generally assumed that growing economies drew more women into the job market.

The earnings disparity between men and women narrowed as more women went to work. But it didn’t go away. Goldin compiled two centuries of data on the gender pay disparity. She found that the earnings gap narrowed during the first half of the 19th century and then from roughly 1890 to 1930 as companies began to need many more administrative and clerical workers. But progress in reducing the pay gap stalled from about 1930 to 1980 even though more women were working and attending college.

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Economics Nobel Prize goes to Claudia Goldin, an expert on women at workHarvard University's Claudia Goldin has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on women in the labor market. She studies the causes of the persistent pay gap between men and women.
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »

Economics Nobel Prize goes to Claudia Goldin, an expert on women at workHarvard University's Claudia Goldin has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on women in the labor market. She studies the causes of the persistent pay gap between men and women.
Source: KPBSnews - 🏆 240. / 63 Read more »