Economist Claudia Goldin wins Nobel Prize for work on gender gap

Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has been awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for her work examining the gender pay gap.

Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has been awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for her work examining the gender pay gap.

Goldin, 77, was recognised for her research showing that women are paid less than men on average despite having higher education levels and that most of the gap appears after childbirth.

“This year’s Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

“Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap.”

Goldin is just the third woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, which has the fewest number of female laureates, after Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Esther Duflo in 2019.

For her research, Goldin examined data covering 200 years of women’s participation in the workforce in the United States.

Goldin’s research found that a woman’s role in the job market and her pay are determined partly by individual decisions, including educational choices, as well as broad social and economic changes.