The American economist Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel prize for economics for bringing together analysis of trade patterns and where economic activity takes place, the prize committee said on Monday.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prestigious 10 million crown ($1.4 million) prize recognized Mr. Krugman's formulation of a new theory to answer questions driving world-wide urbanization.

"He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography," the committee said in its statement.