The duo won the coveted prize 'for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles,' said the Nobel Foundation on its Web site.
The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2004 is also referred to as the Economics Nobel.
Finn E. Kydland is a professor at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, while Edward C. Prescott is a professor at the Arizona State University, Tempe, and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, USA.
Finn E. Kydland was born in 1943 in Norway. He obtained a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh in 1973. Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
Edward C. Prescott, born 1940 in Glen Falls, NY, USA, got his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh in 1967.
This year's prize amount is about $1.5 million and will be shared equally among the Laureates.
The Bank of Sweden (Sveriges Riksbank) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was first awarded to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen in 1969 for their development and application of dynamic models in the analysis of economic processes.
Last year's Economics Nobel was won by Robert F. Engle, United States, and Clive W.J. Granger, Britain, for their use of statistical methods for economic time series.
In 1998, India's Amartya Sen won the coveted prize for contributions to welfare economics, which help explain the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty.