Claudia Goldin wins the Nobel prize in economics

On the morning of October 9th, the National Bureau of Economic Research circulated a working paper to economists around the world entitled “Why Women Won”. Rather fittingly, a few hours later, Ms Goldin was announced as the winner of this year’s economics Nobel prize, for advancing “our understanding of women’s labour-market outcomes”. Simple statistics, such as the female employment rate, were mismeasured because when surveyed, women might respond “I’m a housewife”, notes Ms Goldin, even if they managed the family business. Ms Goldin’s prize is the first economics Nobel awarded for work largely in economic history since Robert Fogel, her former adviser, triumphed in 1993. Before Ms Goldin’s research, many academics considered questions about historical gender pay gaps to be unanswerable because of a paucity of data.