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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Harvard Professor Claudia Goldin won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Monday for her work on gender differences in the labor market.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Goldin "provided the first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap."
Goldin's research shows that women's participation in the workforce decreased during the industrial revolution, but went back up when the service sector grew in the early 1900s. Goldin said the changes in the labor market have to do with the changes in home and family responsibilities for women.
"During the twentieth century, women’s education levels continuously increased, and in most high-income countries they are now substantially higher than for men," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. "Goldin demonstrated that access to the contraceptive pill played an important role in accelerating this revolutionary change by offering new opportunities for career planning."
However, even though more women entered the workforce, the pay gap between men and women did not close. Goldin said a driving factor behind pay differences is women not returning to work after the birth of their first child.
“Understanding women’s role in the labour is important for society. Thanks to Claudia Goldin’s groundbreaking research we now know much more about the underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences said.
Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. As part of her extensive background in the field of economics, she served as the director of the NBER's Development of the American Economy program for nearly three decades. She is currently a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy group. Goldin has also authored numerous books and papers.
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