2023 Economics Nobel Prize

Nobel Laureate: Claudia Goldin

Prize amount: 11 million Swedish kronor.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 was awarded to Claudia Goldin.

Her Work:

"for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes"

Study on Gender Gap at workplace

She uncovered the key drivers of gender differences in the labour market

She provided

“the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries”

Study of US labour Market:

Goldin had studied the 200 years ofUS labour market condition and found that

U-Curve of Female Participation

Female participation in the labour market did not have an upward trend over this entire period, but instead forms a U-shaped curve.

Participation of Married Women

Participation of married women decreased with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early nineteenth century.

It started to increase with the growth of the service sector in the early twentieth century.

Reason for the changes

Goldin explained this pattern as the result of

Structural change

Evolving social norms

regarding women’s responsibilities for home and family.

Increased Women Education

During the twentieth century, women’s education levels continuously increased

In most high-income countries they are now substantially higher than for men

Impact of Contraceptive Pill

Goldin demonstrated that access to the contraceptive pill played an important role in accelerating this revolutionary change by offering new opportunities for career planning.

Gender Gap

Despite modernisation, economic growth and rising proportions of employed women in the twentieth century, earnings gap between women and men hardly closed.

Reasons by Goldin

Educational decisions, which impact a lifetime of career opportunities, are made at a relatively young age

Expectations of young women are formed by the experiences of previous generations

For instance, their mothers, who did not go back to work until the children had grown up – then development will be slow.

The parenthood effect

Differences in earnings largely arises with the birth of the first child.

Understanding women’s role in the labour is important for society. Claudia Goldin’s groundbreaking research helped in knowing underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future.