By and Surbhi Kesar
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 was awarded to Claudia Goldin, professor of economics at Harvard University, for 鈥渉aving advanced our understanding of women鈥檚 labour market outcomes鈥�. Goldin is now one of three women who have been awarded the prize, and, more importantly, this is the first time that the prize recognises research that makes a fundamental distinction between economic outcomes of men and women. Her work makes significant contributions to both the empirical and theoretical aspects of the theme, particularly in the context of the US.
Empirically, she applied innovative ways to unearth data for women鈥檚 labour market outcomes in the US at a time when the labour force surveys only collected this information for men. This allowed her to uncover the long-term trend of economic outcomes for women. Her work revealed that there was no linear relationship between economic growth and development and the women鈥檚 labour force participation. Instead, bringing together cross-country evidence and historical data, she empirically established a U-shaped relationship between women鈥檚 employment and economic growth. This implies that at low levels of economic growth, larger share of women tend to participate in the labour market, largely in agriculture. However, with economic growth and a sectoral shift away from agriculture, women鈥檚 participation faltered. Goldin argued that the 鈥渋ncome effect鈥� — the rise in household incomes alongside economic growth along with the increasing use of technology in agricultural activities — may explain women鈥檚 initial withdrawal from employment. However, beyond a certain level of economic growth, women鈥檚 participation rose as their education levels increased and as more white-collar emerged by replacing the factory jobs that are often stigmatised for women.
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