US professor takes Nobel economics prize

American Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize today for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

Krugman, 55, a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, formulated a new theory to answer questions about free trade, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

“What are the effects of free trade and globalisation? What are the driving forces behind worldwide urbanisation? Paul Krugman has formulated a new theory to answer these questions,” the academy said in its citation.

“He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography,” it said.

Krugman was the lone of winner of the £700,000 (€888,991) award, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which is the last of the six Nobel prizes announced this year.