The photo taken on Oct. 12, 2009 shows the images of the 2009 Nobel Economics Prize winners Oliver Williamson (R) and Elinor Ostrom displayed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. U.S. economists Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel prize for economics for their work in economic governance. (Xinhua/Wu Ping)

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Research by Oliver E. Williamson, winner of this year's Nobel Prize in economic sciences, has relevance to current economy, U.S. economists said on Monday.

Economists explained, Williamson's research had implications for current economic situation in the United States and was relevant to economic reforms in developing countries such as China.

"Williamson studied a lot about how to get an organizational form right, what are the boundaries of a firm, how big should the firm be," Richard Lyons, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, told Xinhua.

The current economic crisis in the U.S. is in part linked to shortcomings in organizations and the way organizations were designed, Lyons noted.

Williamson won the prize "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Monday in an announcement.

When asked by reporters how his research might have tuned people into the problems that caused the current global economic crisis, Williamson said micro-economists who look at issues like inflation, employment and the Gross National Product were better qualified to answer.

But, "I do think organization is important in a pervasive way," the Nobel laureate, who is a professor in UC Berkeley, said at a press conference held there.

Some of the recent economic developments that came as such a surprise to the world might have been foreseen if institutions such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission had studied as much for how they're run as for what they do, Williamson said.

In an interview with Xinhua, Gerard Roland, chair of UC Berkeley' Economics Department, said he believed that Williamson's studies were also of relevance to China's economic reforms.

"Williamson is the father of the institutional economics, looking at the impacts of rules and laws on the economic behavior within organizations and within society," he said.

When China started the economic reforms, questions arose such as how much the market mechanism should play a role, whether big firms should be cut into smaller firms or how the firms should be organized, said Roland.

"All these questions have been studied by Williamson and were very relevant to China," he said.