Abstract: In the field of economics, the researches on the issue of institutional change have attracted the attention of a large number of famous scholars both in China and abroad for a long time. However, most of the existing literatures on institutional change focus just on some partial aspects, having not formed a consistent paradigm under which the subject can be understood in all related aspects. Therefore, researchers should review and comb through the literature results concerning the evolution process of the general theory of the economics of institutional change and its application in China and relaxing of property right regulation, and put some relatively independent topics into a unified paradigm, so as to clarify the focus of debate and form a few clues as a clear theoretical framework and research program for further discussion. In particular, the three areas of research content, theoretical innovation and methodology should be further exploited.

Key words: institutional change; deregulation; property rights regulation; research paradigm; China’s experience