American economists Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson have won the 2009 Nobel prize for economics for their work in economic governance.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prize recognised Ostrom for showing how common property can be managed by user associations and Williamson for a theory on corporate conflict resolution.
'Over the last three decades, these seminal contributions have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention,' the committee said in its statement.
The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It is not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel's 1895 will.
Ms Ostrom is the first woman to win the economics prize.
