Firmly grounded in common-pool resource theory and related developments in transaction cost economics, Dustin Garrick's new book Water Allocation in Rivers under Pressure raises to a new level the conceptual sophistication and empirical rigour that this research tradition has become well known for. His goal in the book "is to make transaction costs visible, and examine the relationship between transaction costs and institutional change in water allocation reform". This goal is pursued through comparative institutional analysis of market-based policy reforms in three regions - two in the USA (Colorado and Columbia River Basins) and one in Australia (Murray-Darling Basin) - intended to redress environmental problems arising from over-allocation of water to extractive uses.