A Nobel laureate’s assist to women’s basketball pros

In March 2024, Claudia Goldin received an email from leadership at the Women’s National Basketball Players Association. Its executive director hoped the renowned economist would advise the players’ union in negotiating a new contract.

“I’ve turned down many hundreds of requests since I don’t have much time,” replied Goldin, who has been inundated since her 2023 Nobel win. “More important, I turned them down because I would not have learned anything from accepting them. Your request is different. I would learn something interesting.”

In March 2026, the players’ union reached a historic collective bargaining agreement (or CBA) with the WNBA, securing salary increases of nearly 400 percent for its members over the next seven years. Goldin, Samuel W. Morris University Professor and the Henry Lee Professor of Economics, worked for nearly two years to anchor the deliberations in quantitative reality.

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