One scholar studies how best to manage resources like forests, fisheries and oil fields. A fellow American looks at why some companies grow so large. Together they are the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in economics for groundbreaking work that could affect efforts to prevent another global financial crisis.

Oliver Williamson (above) and Elinor Ostrom AP PHOTOS

Elinor Ostrom, 76, known for her work on the management of common resources, is the first woman to win a Nobel in economics. She shares the prize with Oliver Williamson, 77, who pioneered the study of how and why companies structure themselves, and how they resolve conflicts. Ostrom is a political scientist at Indiana University while Williamson is an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The final prizes of 2009, announced Oct. 12, capped a year in which a record five women won Nobels.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it chose Ostrom and Williamson for work that "advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention." They will share the ¥1.4 million prize.

The academy did not specifically mention the global financial crisis. But many of the problems at the heart of it — bonuses, executive compensation, risky and poorly understood securities — involve a perceived lack of oversight.

"There has been a huge discussion how the big banks — the big investment banks — have acted badly, with bosses who have misused their power, misused their shareholders' confidence, and that is in line with (Williamson's) theories," prize committee member Per Krusell said.