The 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Claudia Goldinfor her work related to women in the labor market, reported the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The award to the American Goldin is specifically awarded to her “for advancing our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes“. Goldin analyzed data from the United States and explains the wage gap between women and men by educational reasons and by the birth of the first child.
Women are greatly underrepresented in the global labor market and, when they work, they earn less than men, the Swedish academy recalled.
Goldin has trawled through the archives and compiled more than 200 years of data from the United States, “allowing her to demonstrate how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time.”
The academy recalled that, “despite modernization, economic growth and the increase in the proportion of women employed in the 20th century, for a long period of time the wage gap between women and men barely closed.”
According to the winner, part of the explanation is that educational decisions, which impact a lifetime of professional opportunities, are made at a relatively young age.
“If young women’s expectations are shaped by the experiences of previous generations (for example, their mothers, who did not return to work until their children were grown), then development will be slow.”
The Swedish academy reminds that, historically, much of the gender gap in income could be explained by differences in education and occupational options.
“However, Goldin has shown that most of this income gap is now between women and women in the same occupation, and that it largely emerges with the birth of the first child.”
During the 20th century, women’s education levels rose continually and in most high-income countries are now substantially higher than those of men.
According to the academy, “Goldin showed that access to the birth control pill played an important role in accelerating this revolutionary change. by offering new opportunities for career planning.”
“Understanding the role of women at work is important for society. Thanks to Claudia Goldin’s groundbreaking research, we now know much more about the underlying factors and obstacles that may need to be addressed in the future,” Jakob Svensson, chair of the Economic Sciences Prize Committee, said in a statement. on the occasion of the awarding of the prize. The award is the last of the Nobel Prizes announced, after the winners in the categories were announced last week. of Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace and it will be delivered, like the others, next December.
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