Claudia Goldin

• 1. Bronx To Economics

  ›

  Claudia Dale Goldin was born in the Bronx, New York City on the 14th of May 1946. Her father Leon Goldin worked as a data processing manager at Burlington Industries while her mother Lucille Rosansky Goldin served as principal of Public School 105. As a child she dreamed of becoming an archaeologist but that changed after reading Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters during junior high school. The book drew her toward bacteriology and microbiology instead. She completed a summer course in microbiology at Cornell University before graduating from the Bronx High School of Science. Her initial plan to study microbiology shifted dramatically during her sophomore year at Cornell. A class with Alfred Kahn sparked a new passion for economics. Kahn used economic tools to uncover hidden truths much like de Kruif had done for microbiology. He was working on airline deregulation at the time. Goldin graduated from Cornell with a BA in economics in 1967. She earned her master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1969. Her PhD followed in 1972 focusing on industrial organization and labor economics.

  18

• 2. Tenure And Firsts

  ›

  Goldin began teaching as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1973. She moved to Princeton University where she served as an assistant professor from 1973 until 1979. From 1979 to 1985 she held the title of associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She became a full professor there between 1985 and 1990. In 1990 she joined Harvard University as a professor of economics. That same year she became the first woman granted tenure in Harvard's economics department. She also holds the distinction of being the first female economist offered or achieving tenure at both Princeton and Penn. Her autobiographical essay published in 1998 suggests these achievements were not particularly notable because she was too young to be considered a pioneer. She recalled no peculiar memories of being one of only three women in a class of 55 students at the University of Chicago. Goldin later served as president of the American Economic Association in 2013. She also led the Economic History Association during the 1999 and 2000 terms.

  2547

• 3. Quiet Revolution Pill

  ›

  Goldin co-authored The Power of the Pill with Lawrence F. Katz in August 2002. This paper highlighted how access to birth control revolutionized women's economic opportunities. Oral contraceptives enabled women to delay marriage and childbirth. They could invest more heavily in higher education and careers. This shift led to increasing labor force participation and professional advancement. A second article titled The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment appeared in May 2006. It explained how changing aspirations and workplace policies allowed more women to pursue careers. Goldin identified a three-phase transformation in women's labor force participation throughout the twentieth century. Early phases saw few married women working despite economic growth. Societal changes like the rise of nice jobs reduced stereotypes about married women working. Part-time work options gradually made employment more attractive. By the third phase starting in the 1960s young women began planning careers independently. They were influenced by the availability of the birth control pill and rising divorce rates. Shifting social expectations contributed to reshaping the role of women in the labor market. Their independence grew less tied to their husbands.

  4344

• 4. U-Shaped History

  ›

  Goldin published Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women in 1990. The book traced the evolution of the female labor force from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. She challenged previous understandings that women's employment advances were merely responses to social revolution. Her research showed long-run economic progress drove these changes instead. The gender wage gap existed for centuries and was shaped by social norms and legal restrictions. A working paper titled The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function appeared in 1994. It described how female labor force participation follows a U-shaped trend across development stages. Initially many women worked in agriculture during early industrialization. Participation declined as society shifted toward male-dominated sectors due to changing norms. However improved education brought women back into the labor force creating the U-shape. This framework helps explain historical and cross-country labor trends. One of her most cited papers A Grand Gender Convergence appeared in April 2014. It underlined how making jobs more flexible would have a great impact on closing the gender gap. Fields like technology science and healthcare embraced flexible structures faster than corporate business or law.

  373940

• 5. Race And Tech

  ›

  Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz wrote about education's interaction with technological advancement in their 2009 book The Race Between Education and Technology. They argued that technological change and education formed a race involving inequality. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century educated workers increased faster than demand. This boosted income for most people and lowered inequality. The reverse has been true since approximately 1980. An educational slowdown accompanied rising inequality during this later period. Alan Krueger of Princeton University called the work the best of what economics had to offer. He praised it as a monumental achievement supplying a unified framework for interpreting earnings distribution. Goldin also examined the value of postsecondary credentials through a 2016 paper titled The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market. This study used experimental methods to determine credential worth in the job market. Her research continues to explore complex reasons behind these economic shifts and potential solutions.

  495152

• 6. Nobel Recognition

  ›

  In October 2023 Claudia Goldin was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. She received the honor for having advanced our understanding of women's labor market outcomes. She became the third woman to win the award overall. Goldin was the first woman to win the prize solo without sharing it. Prior to this she won the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2016 for her career-long work on women's economic history. She received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers in Knowledge Award in 2019 for contributions to gender gap analysis. The Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics followed in 2020. In 2024 she appeared on Time magazine's annual Women of the Year list among twelve women. Miriam's Cup chose her that same year to recognize a Jewish woman of achievement. She has been elected fellow of numerous organizations including the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Goldin serves as co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's Gender in the Economy study group alongside Claudia Olivetti and Jessica Goldberg.

  866465