A UK-based Cypriot and two Americans have won the 2010 economics Nobel for work focusing on problems like unemployment.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said yesterday the 10 million Swedish crown (around €1.0 million) prize recognised Christopher Pissarides and U.S. professors Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen.

Their work included analysis of the process of buying and selling and how job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and policy.

“According to a classical view of the market, buyers and sellers find one another immediately, without cost, and have perfect information about the prices of all goods and services… But this is not what happens in the real world,” the prize committee said in a statement.