PURPOSE: To obtain polymers which are soluble in many organic solvents and useful in a variety of applications including, e.g. the synthesis of polyesters or polyurethanes, polymer blends, etc., by allowing the polymers to have specific repeating units.

CONSTITUTION: Polymers or copolymers comprise a propoxylated allyl alcohol repeating unit of the formula: CH2=CH-CH2-(A)n-OH (wherein A is oxypropylene; and n is a number of not grater than 5) or this unit and an allyl alcohol unit and have an average hydroxyl functionality of about 2 - about 10 and a number average molecular weight of about 300 - about 15,000. The copolymers generally comprise about 1 - about 99 wt.% allyl alcohol repeating units and about 99 wt.% 1 - about 1 wt.% propoxylated allyl alcohol repeating units. These (co)polymers can be obtained by mixing monomers and polymerizing them in the presence of a free radical initiator, generally at a temperature of about 90 - about 200°C. It is generally preferred to carry out the polymerization under a pressure of greater than 1 atm.