Handelsblatt, Germany’s business and financial daily, published an interview with Claudia Goldin, Nobel laureate in economics, Harvard Professor, and Fellow of the RFBerlin Network. Speaking during her visit to Berlin for the RFBerlin Annual Public Lecture 2025, Goldin discussed the structural factors shaping women’s labour participation and family choices in Germany and beyond.
Goldin emphasised that labour shortages are primarily “a matter of price”– arguing that higher wages would encourage more women to take on full-time work. She also addressed persistent cultural expectations around motherhood, observing that “given Germany’s high part-time rates, the birth rate should actually be much higher by international comparison.” Her comments drew on decades of academic research and comparative insights from the United States.
The interview, “Die Geburtenrate in Deutschland müsste viel höher sein” (“The birth rate in Germany should be much higher”), by Barbara Gillmann, was published in Handelsblatt on 5 November 2025
