PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the subject compound, useful as a stock for medicines and agrocbemicals, efficiently from a readily available, inexpensive stock by a simple procedure by reacting a specific substituted propanediol with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a metallic catalyst. SOLUTION: This compound, e.g. 3-hydroxyisobutyrate, is obtained by reacting (A) a 2-substituted-1,3-propanediol shown by the formula (R is a 1-6C alkyl or the like), e.g. 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol, in the presence of (B) a metallic catalyst, preferably containing at least one element selected from the platinum group metals, e.g. platinum and, at the same time, at least one of bismuth and lead, with (C) an oxygen-containing gas, preferably at pH 7 to 12 and 20 to 50 deg.C. It is preferable to use 50 to 150 wt.% of the component B on the reaction solution.