Claudia Goldin on the Economics of Inequality

Conversations with Tyler

Harvard professor Claudia Goldin has made a name for herself tackling difficult questions. What was the full economic cost of the American Civil War? Does education increase or lessen income inequality? What causes the gender pay gap—and how do you even measure it? Her approach, which often involves the unearthing of new historical data, has yielded lasting insights in several distinct areas of economics.

Claudia joined Tyler to discuss the rise of female billionaires in China, why the US gender earnings gap expanded in recent years, what’s behind falling marriage rates for those without a college degree, why the wage gap flips for Black women versus Black men, theoretical approaches for modeling intersectionality, gender ratios in economics, why she’s skeptical about happiness research, how the New York Times wedding announcement page has evolved, the problems with for-profit education, the value of an Ivy League degree, whether a Coasian solution existed to prevent the Civil War, which Americans were most likely to be anti-immigrant in the 1920s, her forthcoming work on Lanham schools, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded September 1st, 2021 Other ways to connect

• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Tyler on Twitter
• Follow Claudia on Twitter
• Email us: [e-mail]
• Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Thumbnail photo credit: BBVA Foundation