The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday decided to award the 2023 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, in memory of Alfred Nobel, to Claudia Goldin, "for having advanced our understanding of women's labour market outcomes."
Goldin's work has provided the first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through the centuries, the jury noted.
"Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap," the academy said in a statement.
Women are vastly underrepresented in the global labour market and, when they work, they earn less than men, said the statement, adding that, based on "200 years of data from the U.S.," Goldin has demonstrated "how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time."
Female participation in the labour market "forms a U-shaped curve" over this entire period, and the participation of married women decreased with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early 19th century, but then started to increase with the growth of the service sector in the early 20th century, her researches have shown.
Goldin explained this pattern as the result of structural change and evolving social norms regarding women's responsibilities for home and family, said the statement.
"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 in the statement.
The telephone interview on site was unsuccessful, but Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said that he was able to reach Goldin before the announcement, and that Goldin's reaction to receiving the prize was "surprised and very, very glad."
Goldin was born in 1946 in New York. She got her PhD in 1972 from the University of Chicago and is now professor at Harvard University.
The prize comes with 11 million Swedish Krona (1 million U.S. dollars).
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