2023 Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded to Claudia Goldin, Becomes Third Woman to Win Prize

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Claudia Goldin on Monday for advancing our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.

“Claudia Goldin’s research has given us new and often surprising insights into women’s historical and contemporary roles in the labour market,” the Nobel Committee said in its press release.

It pointed out that Goldin was awarded for her comprehensive approach to explaining the source of significant gender differences despite the proportion of women in paid work tripling in many high-income countries.

The academy’s secretary-general, Hans Ellengren, announced this year’s winners.

Goldin is a professor at Harvard University in the United States.

Goldin is the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, aka the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The three women who have been awarded the prize in economic sciences are Elinor Ostrom in 2009, Esther Duflo in 2019 and Claudia Goldin in 2023.

The first Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 1969 to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen for their pioneering work in the field of econometrics. 54 prizes in economic sciences have been awarded 1969-2022.

Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 for research on banks and financial crises.

The Nobel Prize in Economics, which is officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is an international award recognizing outstanding contributions to the field of economics.

Unlike the other, original five Nobel Prize which commemorate the outstanding contributions made to the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and literature over the course of the year, the Nobel Prize in Economics was created later, in 1968, by the central bank of Sweden, the Sveriges Riksbank, to honour Alfred Nobel’s memory.

The Nobel Prize in Economics or the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to individuals or groups of individuals who have made a significant impact on the field of economics through their research, discoveries or contributions.

The laureates are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences based on recommendations from a committee of experts in the field.

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19” on October 2. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter” on Tuesday.

On October 4, Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature went to Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Narges Mohammadi “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.