This volume contains thoroughly refereed versions of the best papers presented at the 4th European Workshop on Modelling Automomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, held July 29 - 31, 1992 in S. Martino al Cimino, Italy. The book opens with an introductory survey by the volume editors not only on the collection of papers but also on the history and present situation of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) and its interdisciplinary relations to social sciences, artificial life, and economics. The 19 technical papers are organized into sections on artificial life and reactive systems, economics and game theory, coordination and multi-agent planning, and DAI tools and applications.