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To learn more about her work and impact we are sharing the laudatio from the UZH honorary doctorate award in 2020, for which the Department of Economics nominated her.
The Faculty of Economics of the University of Zurich awards the honorary doctorate to Prof. Dr. Claudia Goldin for her outstanding scientific life's work. In doing so, it recognises the versatility and significance of her groundbreaking research in the field of labour market and economic gender gap analysis, as well as the enormous impact of this work on science, the economy and society.
Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and served as Director of the NBER's Program on the Development of the American Economy from 1989 to 2017. Goldin received her B.A. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In 1990, Goldin was the first woman to receive a tenured professorship in the Harvard Economics Department.
Goldin is an economic historian and labour economist. Her research covers a wide range of topics, including issues of the female labour force, immigration, income inequality, technological change, education and the economic gender gap. Much of her work interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current problems. Her research currently focuses on female academics' pursuit of career-family balance and the actual achievement of this goal.
She is known for her historical work on women in the US economy. Her most influential articles in this area focus on the history of women's career and family needs, co-education in higher education, the impact of the "pill" on career and marriage decisions, and women's surnames after marriage as a social indicator. She also investigates the reasons why female students are now the majority in universities and the new work cycle of women. She has conducted an extensive project on the changing family and work patterns of male and female university graduates from the late 19th century to the present. Her contributions to the field of labour economics and gender have had enormous impact on scholarship and society.
Goldin is the author and editor of nine books and many book chapters, including the award-winning Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (Oxford 1990) and An Evolving Force: A History of Women in the Economy (Oxford 2019). Her book "The Race between Education and Technology" (with L. Katz; Belknap Press, 2008) won her the 2009 Richard Lester Award and the 2008 RR Hawkins Award for the most outstanding scholarly work in Arts and Science.
Goldin was president of the American Economic Association in 2013 and president of the Economic History Association in 1999 and 2000. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, as well as the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Labour Economists (SOLE), the Econometric Society and the Cliometric Society. She has served as Editor of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic History, and is currently Associate Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and a member of several other editorial boards. She received the IZA Prize for Labour Economics in 2016 and the Mincer Prize for lifetime achievement in labour economics in 2009. In 2019, she received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers in Knowledge Award in the category of Economics, Finance, and Management for her pioneering contributions to gender gap analysis.
