— Ch. 1 · Bronx To Economics —
Claudia Goldin.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
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.
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.