Gender in the Economy

Women play diverse and critical roles in the economies of both developing and developed nations. Yet, they often remain severely constrained from realizing their full personal and economic potential as a result of insufficient access to formal financial services, work, and education, disempowering social norms, and gender-biased laws and institutions. Research among economists that describes these various constraints and evaluates interventions to remove them is often siloed in different subfields of economics. This working group, which builds on the activities of the Study Group on Gender and the Economy that was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provides a venue for explicitly anchoring research discussions on these topics. It brings together researchers from different fields of economics who are working on these topics to share and discuss current research findings.

The latest working group meeting Dissertation Fellowships on Gender in the Economy 2025-2026

Codirectors

Claudia Goldin_Profile
Claudia Goldin, Harvard University

Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She is the past director of the NBER’s Development of the American Economy Program. An economic historian and labor economist, her research interests include the evolution of gender differences in labor force and earnings, as well as technological change, education, and the earnings distribution.

Jessica Goldberg Profile
Jessica Goldberg, University of Maryland

Jessica A. Goldberg is an associate professor of economics at the University of Maryland. She is a development economist whose research interests include rural labor markets, gender disparities in financial inclusion, and the role of social networks in economic decisions.

Claudia Olivetti Profile
Claudia Olivetti, Dartmouth College

Claudia Olivetti is the George J. Records 1956 Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the evolving role of women in the labor market, as well as intergenerational mobility, marriage institutions, and the effects of the Baby Boom.

Abstracts of New NBER Working Papers Delivered to Your Inbox
Sign-Up for New This Week
Explore Ongoing NBER Research Projects
Projects Overview