Credit: Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach This use is strictly editorial. This permission is free of charge, according to https://nobelprize.qbank.se/mb/?h=f142eee16bc09dd5247dd753fd9ef889

On Oct. 9, 2023, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Claudia Goldin, PhD, the first woman to be awarded the prize solo and the first woman offered tenure by Harvard’s economics department.  Dr. Goldin’s work has been centered around documenting and understanding the history of women’s labor force participation and the gender wage gap.  Her work has important  implications for labor market, educational and social welfare policies.

Dr. Goldin’s work is not confined to understanding disparities, but extends to correcting them.  Across academia men economics majors outnumber women at an alarming rate. In an IMF podcast Dr. Goldin observed: “Men think economics is about finance so they take economics. Women think economics is about finance, so they don’t take economics. Women believe economics is not about people, that psychology is about people, which is what many women end up majoring in. We have to do better in teaching them that economics is about people.” Dr. Goldin was the principal investigator in a the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge, which was an experiment that incentivized colleges and universities to implement creative interventions to improve the popularity of majoring in economics to women.

Cheryl Carleton, PhD, Associate Professor, Economics, who teaches Women in Economics ECO 3118, noted that Villanova is working to “increase diversity overall, which includes women.” According to the Federal Reserve, 7% of white men and 6.4% of underrepresented men major in economics at Villanova University, whereas only 2.5% of  white and underrepresented women major in economics.  At Villanova, significant gains have been made by hiring more diverse faculty who bring “new methodologies, which appeals to a broader audience, including women.”

Dr. Carleton noted that Mary Kelly, PhD, Associate Chair, Economics, has been active in promoting a diverse range of events and speakers to appeal to a broader range of students.  The most recent Economics Department newsletter documents these efforts.  Carlton trusts these initiatives “inspires [women & underrepresented students] to take some economics courses and thus they are more able to use the tools of economics throughout whatever career path they choose.”

Below is sample of the books Goldin’s authored, co-authored and edited in our collection:

• Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820-1860: A Quantitative History. University of Chicago Press, 1976.
• Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. Oxford University Press, 1990.
• The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy. University of Chicago Press, 1994.
• The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
• Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America’s Economic History. University of Chicago Press, 2006.
• The Race Between Education and Technology. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.
• Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages. The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
• Career and Family: Women’s Century-long Journey Toward Equity. Princeton University Press, 2021.

Many of Dr. Goldin’s papers are published in the most prestigious economics journals.  The breadth of her research is thrilling.  You can browse the papers on EconLit here.

Finally, Dr. Goldin’s devotion to a rigorous scientific method is expressed via the many datasets she collected and made accessible for replication and further uses via the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

By Ethan Shea

Once again, the infamous American debt ceiling is all over the news.

Last Thursday, the United States hit the $31.4 trillion debt limit. What does that mean? In brief, the debt ceiling (or limit) is the amount of money the United States government can borrow to spend on programs such as social security, paying government workers and anything else the government deems necessary. Because the United States must borrow money to afford such payments, failing to raise the debt ceiling means the government could default on its debt.

Even when the United States technically reaches the debt ceiling, there is still time to avert economic ruin. By taking “extraordinary measures,” the government can continue to pay debts for a few months even after the limit is reached.

There are plenty of ideas floating around that all claim to be solutions to this economic issue, but there is one particular plan I find both fascinating and hilarious.

Trillion-dollar coin design by DonkeyHotey

This idea is known as the trillion-dollar coin. The concept involves minting a coin worth one-trillion dollars and placing it in the Federal Reserve. This would give the United States more spending power and the ability to pay its debts.

Miraculously, because of a 1996 law, such coinage would be legal if it were minted with non-traditional metal such as platinum, as there are no value restrictions officially imposed on platinum coinage.

This concept was first introduced in 2011 during a debt ceiling crisis that lasted until the end of July, just days before the U.S. would officially default. Ever since, the trillion dollar coin has faded into obscurity and subsequently reemerged when another debt crisis looms.

Despite the appealing simplicity of the idea, there are quite a few reasons why minting a one-trillion dollar coin could be harmful. The biggest risk is rapid inflation, which is already a major issue in the United States.

But above all, minting such a coin would be an action never taken before, so despite speculation, no one truly knows what would happen. Markets generally dislike such unpredictability, so to keep investors calm, government will most likely avoid such a move.

If you’re interested in learning more about the trillion-dollar coin or economics in general, check out Falvey Library’s subject guide on economics. There, you can access economic article databases, peruse relevant statistics or even chat with Linda Hauck, Falvey’s Business Librarian.

With complimentary access to the New York Times provided by Villanova University, you can also read this in-depth article on the current debt ceiling debacle.

Ethan Shea is a second-year graduate student in the English Department and Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library.

Matthew Fagerstrom receives the Falvey Scholar Award from Jeehyun “Jee” Davis, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Stewardship.

BY SHAWN PROCTOR

This is part 4 of a 6-part series featuring the 2019 Falvey Scholars. Read more about them every Tuesday and in the upcoming issue of Mosaic: the library’s bi-annual publication.

Scholarly Stats:

Matthew Fagerstrom ’19 CLAS

Hometown: Hershey, Pa.

Faculty Mentor: Michael Curran, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics

Research: The Financial Industry in the Era of Fiat Currency: An Empirical Approach

Other Honors: Villanova Undergraduate Research Fellows Summer Program Grant

In his own words:

Matthew’s Research:

My research project involved curating a literature review covering developments in the measurement of financial regulation, monetary policy, and the growth of the financial industry.

Following understanding the literature surrounding these topics, I conducted a Vector Autoregression (VAR) and Structural Vector Autoregression analysis using data on financial compensation, monetary policy, financial deregulation, and unionization.

Through my research I found that as the money supply in the economy increases that wages in the financial industry rose faster than wages in the rest of the economy. Between 1973 and 2015 employees in the financial industry saw their wages grow from 80 percent of averages wages to 150 percent.

Today, we assume that money is neutral. This study suggests significant non-neutralities of money due to the persistent relationship between the monetary base and financial variables. Banks need to be aware of how their policies will impact the distribution of jobs and production, and plan monetary interventions accordingly.

Matthew’s “Falvey Experience”:

The library was of immeasurable value, especially in writing the literature review. Writing the literature review involved reading and compiling sources from the cutting edge of the economics discipline, as the topic I researched has not been researched by many other scholars. I accessed almost every journal through the library, as they were restricted by “paywalls,” which made my research efficient.

Moreover, the private study spaces that populate Falvey Memorial Library were oases where my productivity could flourish.

In previous, but related research, Linda Hauck, Academic Librarian for Business and Human Resource Development, assisted me with finding data sources that I carried over into this project.

The Impact on Him:

I learned a great deal about writing literature reviews from this process, and I also learned applications of matrix algebra in the VAR setting. This experience has made me more confident about becoming an academic economist and has given me the confidence to write literature for my graduate-level political science classes.

What’s Next:

I am continuing my Villanova education next year in order to earn a master’s in political science and Government. Beyond that, I plan to pursue a pre-doctoral fellowship then a PhD.

Shawn Proctor, MFA, is communications and marketing program manager at Falvey Memorial Library.