American economist Claudia Goldin won the Nobel economics prize 'for having advanced our understanding of women's labour market outcomes'. Photo: Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFPThe Nobel prize in economics was on Monday awarded to American economist Claudia Goldin for her research that has helped understand the role of women in the labour market.
Globally, about 50 percent of women participate in the labour market compared to 80 percent of men, but women earn less and are less likely to reach the top of the career ladder, the prize committee noted. It noted that despite modernisation -- coupled with economic growth and a rising proportion of women in the labour market -- the earnings gap between men and women hardly closed for a long time.
"Thanks to Claudia Goldin's groundbreaking research we now know much more about the underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future," Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement. However, just like the other science prizes the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the laureate and the nomination process follows the same procedures.