BI researcher cited in Nobel Prize winner announcement

Earlier this month, it was announced that this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Harvard Univesity’s Claudia Goldin for “having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”. 

According to the prize committee, Goldin offered the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation. Her research shows the causes of change, as well as the main sources behind the remaining gender gap.

Among the scientific advances cited by the Nobel’s Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences was a study conducted by BI’s Assistant Professor Ingrid Huitfeldt and colleagues on what effect parenthood has on gender differences in the labour market. 

“It is truly motivating to see my own research receiving a special mention like this from the Nobel committee. Goldin’s research has been a source of inspiration for me, and it is great to see our field of research receiving increased attention through this award. While we have experienced one of the biggest societal and economic changes in the labour market over the last few decades, a lot of work remains to understand the drivers of the gender gap,” says Ingrid Huitfeldt. 

Huitfeldt and her team discovered that the standard way of estimating the impacts of children on earnings may be biased, and that different empirical methods appear to give rather different answers about the nature of the child penalty. But the research is still a work in progress, and the researchers are awaiting more data to get statistical precision to their long run estimates that account for such bias.

Tommy Sveen, Head of BI’s Department of Economics, was very happy to see research from BI mentioned by the award committee. 

“The Nobel Prize is the ultimate and most prestigious accolade a researcher can receive. I am very happy to see research from BI being recognised as part of the committee’s reasoning for why this year’s winner deserved the award. It is a solid acknowledgement for Ingrid and for BI as a research institution, showing the impact and quality of our school’s research in the wider international research community,” says Tommy Sveen.