The first goal of this workshop is to highlight a number of areas where, despite recent advances, our theoretical understanding of the process of institutional change remains very incomplete.  There is a great need for empirical research to guide the development of theories of institutional change, and economic history provides many exciting opportunities and abundant raw material for such research.  The second aim of the workshop is to illustrate and discuss the process of carrying out research on institutional change in economic history.  These themes will be motivated and illustrated with reference to a number of recent papers, including those listed below.