Claudia D. Goldin

As an economic historian and an economist I interpret "the present through the lens of the past." I mainly explore the origins of issues of current concern, such as the causes of increased female labor force participation, the impact of technological change on the wage structure, and the role of education in ameliorating inequality. I have also written on slavery, emancipation, the post-bellum southern economy, the family, war?s economic impact, immigration, New Deal policies, and a host of topics concerning women. Much of my research in the past decade has concerned the rise of mass education in the United States from the nineteenth century and its impact on economic growth and inequality. I have continued researching various aspects of women?s changing role and my most recent explorations have concerned the impact of "the pill" on women?s career and marriage decisions, women?s surnames after marriage as a social indicator, why women are now the majority of undergraduates, and the career and family tradeoffs faced by college women across the past century. I am just now embarking on a study of the family and career "transitions" of men and women who graduated from selective colleges from the late 1960s to the present.