The book challenges traditinal economic thinking which had explained economic growth in terms of resources technologies,and human preferences. Nothing that economists have not been able to account fully for economic growth, the editors, Vincet Ostrom, David Feeny and Hartmut Picht argue that a fourth component-institutions-is the critical missing link. As the thirteen authors demostrate, the influence of institutions is considerable: establishing the basic rules governing all public and private actions from individule property rights and the ways in which communities deal with public goods, and affecting distribution of income, efficiency of resource allocation, and the development of human resources.