Professor Claudia Goldin of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States of America (USA) won the 2023 Nobel Economics Prize, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, for her research contributions to the understanding of women’s roles and outcomes in the labour market.
- The Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, it shares the same principles as the Nobel Prizes, which have been awarded since 1901.
- Claudia Goldin is the 55th recipient of the Economic Science Prize since its inception in 1969.
- She is the 3rd woman to receive the award after Elinor Ostrom (USA) in 2009 and Esther Duflo (French-American) in 2019. She is also the first woman to win the prize solo.
Note:
- In 2009, Elinor Ostrom became the 1st woman to win the Economics prize. She shared the award with Oliver E Williamson. Esther Duflo shared the 2019 award with her husband Abhijit Banerjee, and Michael Kremer.
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Prize Value:
i.The recipients of the Nobel Prize 2023 are presented with a Nobel Prize diploma (Certificate), a Gold Medal, and a Cash award.
ii.The prize amount for 2023 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 11 million per full prize, which is approximately USD 1 million.
Medal:
The medal in economic sciences was designed by Swedish artist and sculptor Gunvor Svensson-Lundqvist and shows the North Star emblem of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
- Since 2012, the medals has been manufactured by Svenska Medalj in Eskilstuna (Sweden).
About Claudia Goldin:
i.Claudia Goldin was born in 1946 in New York, USA. She provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation throughout history.
ii.She is currently the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and was the director of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Development of the American Economy (DAE) program from 1989 to 2017.
iii.She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
iv.She is a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE), the Econometric Society, and the Cliometric Society.
v.In 1990, she became the first woman to be tenured at Harvard’s economics department.
Noted Books:
i.She is the author and editor of several books, including:
- Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America’s Economic History (with E. Glaeser; Chicago 2006);
- Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages (with L. Katz; Chicago 2018); and
- Career & Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity (Princeton University Press, 2021).
ii.Her book The Race between Education and Technology (with L. Katz; Belknap Press, 2008, 2010) was the winner of the 2008 R.R. Hawkins Award for the most outstanding scholarly work in all disciplines of the arts and sciences.
Awards:
i.She received the 2019 BBVA Frontiers in Knowledge award and the 2020 Nemmers award, both in economics.
ii.In 2009, SOLE awarded her the Mincer Prize for lifetime contributions to the field of labor economics.
About Nobel Prize in Economics:
i.This Prize was established by the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) in 1968, on the tercentenary of the bank.
ii.It was established in memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.
iii.The Economics Prize is different from the original prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace, which were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896 and was first awarded in 1901.
- It was established much later through a donation from the Swedish central bank in 1968, and detractors have thus dubbed it “a false Nobel.”
iv.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task of selecting the Economic Sciences laureates. It has been awarded annually since 1969.
- It has been awarded 55 times to 93 laureates between 1969 and 2023.
Key Facts:
i.Youngest economic sciences laureate: Esther Duflo won the award in 2019 at the age of 46 years.
ii.Oldest economic sciences laureate: Leonid Hurwicz (Russian-born American) won the award in 2007 at the age of 90 years.
iii.26 prizes in Economic Sciences have been given to one laureate only; 20 prizes have been shared by 2 laureates; and 9 prizes have been shared between 3 laureates.
Indian Nobel Economic Prize Laureates:
i.Amartya Sen, an Indian citizen was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1998.
ii.Abhijit Banerjee, an Indian-born American economist won the award in 2019. He shared the award with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.
