WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - American economics professor Claudia Goldin has been awarded the Nobel prize in economics for her studies that examine the role of women in the labor market.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced opn Monday that it decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences to Claudia Goldin 'for having advanced our understanding of women's labour market outcomes.'
'This year's economic sciences laureate provided the first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. By trawling through the archives and compiling and correcting historical data, Goldin has been able to present new and often surprising facts. The fact that women's choices have often been, and remain, limited by marriage and responsibility for the home and family is at the heart of her analyses and explanatory models,' the award committee said in a statement.
'Her insights reach far outside the borders of the US and similar patterns have been observed in many other countries. Her research brings us a better understanding of the labour markets of yesterday, today and tomorrow'.
Over the past century, the proportion of women in paid work has tripled in many high-income countries. This is one of the biggest societal and economic changes in the labour market in modern times, but significant gender differences remain. It was first in the 1980s that a researcher adopted a comprehensive approach to explaining the source of these differences. Claudia Goldin's research has given surprising insights into women's historical and contemporary roles in the labour market.
Women are vastly underrepresented in the global labour market and, when they work, they earn less than men. Claudia Goldin collected more than 200 years of data from the U.S., allowing her to demonstrate how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time.
Historically, much of the gender gap in earnings could be explained by differences in education and occupational choices. However, Goldin has shown that the bulk of this earnings difference is now between men and women in the same occupation, and that it largely arises with the birth of the 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,' says Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.
Goldin, a Professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, will receive a prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor.
Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX