Two American economists won the Nobel Prize for economics on Monday for their work studying how changes in government policies or economic shocks affect a nation’s economy.

Thomas Sargent, a professor at New York University, and Christopher Sims, a professor at Princeton University, both 68, will share the award and the $1.49 million prize money for the work they do together.

While the global economy has been shaken by a series of shocks and policy responses, Sims said the research that won the award doesn’t have any direct solutions for what ails various countries.

But the methods he and Sargent have developed could be used to help guide policymakers, he said.

“I don’t think my research and methods have any simple direct implications for the current situation,” he said in a telephone press conference with reporters in Sweden. “They point to ways to try to unravel why our current situation developed, and new research may lead us out of it.”

Asked how he would invest his share of the winnings, Sims said he would keep it in cash while he considers what to do with it.

Sims and Sargent have known each other for decades, both receiving their doctorates from Harvard in 1968. While their research was carried out independently, the work of each is considered to be complementary. Sargent was traveling to Princeton Monday morning to appear with his colleague.

The Nobel committee’s announcement said Sims and Sargent’s work studies the two-way relationship between policy and the economy — how policy affects the economy and vice versa.

“The laureates’ seminal work during the 1970s and 1980s has been adopted by both researchers and policymakers throughout the world,” said the committee’s statement. “Today, the methods developed by Sargent and Sims are essential tools in macroeconomic analysis.”

Among the issues the two studied were the effects of interest rate and inflation target changes by central banks and the impact of economic shocks such as oil price spikes.