2023 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Claudia Goldin for her research on gender pay inequality

The prestigious award, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is the final award in this year's Nobel series and is worth about $1 million.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Claudia Goldin for her research on wage inequality between men and women, picture 1 — American economic historian Claudia Goldin has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics. Photo: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

“This year’s laureate in Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, has provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation over the centuries… Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main causes of the persistent gender gap,” the awarding body said in a statement.

Ms Goldin, who in 1990 became the first woman to join the economics department at Harvard University, also became just the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. “She was very surprised and very, very happy,” said Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Goldin's 1990 book "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women" was a seminal study of the origins of wage inequality. She followed studies of the impact of birth control pills on women's careers and family formation.

“Claudia Goldin’s discoveries have huge societal implications,” said Randi Hjalmarsson, member of the Economics Prize Committee. “Ultimately, by understanding the problem and calling it by its right name, we can pave a better way forward.”

The Nobel Prize in Economics was not one of the original prizes in the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, but was an additional prize initiated and funded by the Swedish central bank in 1968.

Last year, three American economists, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, won for their work on how regulating and supporting banks could have prevented major economic crises, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hoang Hai (according to NobelPrice, Reuters)

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