This book presents a model for examining problems of institutional
change and applies it to American economic development in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. The authors develop their model of
institutional change. They argue that if external economic factors make
an increase in income possible but not attainable within the existing
institutional structure, new organizations must be developed to achieve
the potential in income. Their model is designed to explain the type and
timing of these necessary changes in institutional organization.
Individual, voluntary cooperative, and governmental arrangements are
included in the discussion, although the latter differs considerably
from the first two.