Abstract: Research on market transition typically comprises four fundamental issues: changes in the returns of all kinds of capitals (especially political capital and human capital), the generalization of Victor Nee’s Market Transition Theory， property rights transformation, and the yettocome end of the market transition. This review tries to depict the knowledge trajectories of all these issues and highlight the theoretical interrelations among them. When it comes to the discussion of institutional changes， researchers of market transition in contemporary China and Eastern European countries are supposed to assign to the state a central role in the largescale institutional transition and be aware that such institutional transition includes changes not only in the formal institution itself but also in the informal constraints.

Key words: institutional change, market penetration, market transition, property rights, return of capitals