The Nobel prize in economics was awarded to American economist Claudia Goldin for research that has helped bring understanding to the role of women in the labour market.

The 77-year-old Harvard professor, who is the third woman to be awarded the prestigious economics prize, was given the nod "for having advanced our understanding of women's labour market outcomes," the jury said.

The Nobel is a "very important prize, not just for me, but for the many people who work in this field and who are trying to understand why there is so much change, but there are still large differences" in pay, Goldin told AFP in a telephone interview after the announcement.

By studying the history of women in the United States workforce, Goldin demonstrated factors that have historically influenced, and in some cases still influence, the supply and demand for women in the labour force, the jury explained.

The Nobel prize in economics has the fewest number of women laureates, with just two others since it was first awarded in 1969. They were Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Esther Duflo in 2019 -- and Goldin is the first woman to receive the prize as the sole laureate.

Goldin, who was among the top names tipped to win, has "trawled the archives and collected over 200 years of data from the US," the jury said.

"She studied something that many people, many historians, for instance, simply decided not to study before because they didn't think these data existed, Hjalmarsson said, calling Goldin "a detective".

Goldin's research showed that female participation in the labour force had not always followed an upward trend but rather a "U-shaped curve", as participation actually decreased with the transition from an agrarian to industrial society.