Claudia Goldin is Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University as well as the Director of the Development of the American Economy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. Since receiving her PhD from the University of Chicago, Dr. Goldin has contributed an enormous amount of research to the study of immigration history, labor markets, inequality, and most recently economics and gender, family, work, technological change, and education. Most of her research interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current issues of concern. Dr. Goldin first distinguished herself with the groundbreaking book, Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820 to 1860: A Quantitative History (University of Chicago Press, 1976). In 1990 she authored the award-winning Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (Oxford University Press). In 2008 she authored, with L. Katz, The Race between Education and Technology, the winner of the 2008 R. R. Hawkins Award for the most outstanding scholarly work in all disciplines of the arts and sciences. She has the distinction of being the first woman tenured in the Economics Department at Harvard.
Other recent publications reflect her study on women in the U.S. economy and examine the factors that have contributed to changes in women’s economic roles, status, and education; they include “The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, and Family” (Ely Lecture, American Economic Association Meetings, Boston, 2006); “The Homecoming of American College Women: The Reversal of the Gender Gap in College,” Journal of Economic Perspectives; and “From the Valley to the Summit: The Quiet Revolution that Transformed Women’s Work,” Regional Review; and her most recent book, Career & Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity (Princeton University Press, 2021). Dr. Goldin continues her research with The Harvard and Beyond Project, an ongoing survey spanning 30 years’ of graduates from elite universities with which to examine the evolution of careers and family outcomes.
Dr. Goldin has been a Visiting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, The Russell Sage Foundation, The Brookings Institute, and the Industrial Relations Section of Princeton University. She was Vice President of the American Economic Association from 1990 to 1991 and President of the Economic History Association from 1999 to 2000. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Econometric Society.
