The aldol condensation of methyl acetate with formaldehyde to form methyl acrylate was studied in a continuous-flow reactor using a series of supported cesium basic catalysts with commercially available materials (ZSM-5, SiO 2 , and γ-Al 2 O 3 ) as carriers prepared by vacuum impregnation. The catalysts were characterized by N 2 adsorption-desorption, Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia and carbon dioxide (NH 3 /CO 2 -TPD). The obtained results indicated that the selectivity of methyl acrylate was mainly influenced by the properties of supports. The formation of acetone is approximately proportional to the acidity of supports. The basicity of the catalysts was favorable to the formation of methyl acrylate according to the results of CO 2 -TPD. The hydrolysis of methyl acetate was inhibited over Cs-HT-SiO 2 prepared by SiO 2 after hydrothermal treatment. Furthermore, SiO 2 with the large mesoporous volume is superior to other supports, which shows the best catalytic activity for the aldol condensation reaction. On the other hand, the catalytic performance of zeolite basic catalysts was strongly influenced by the effect of reactant diffusion. Internal diffusion resulted in the increase of conversion of methyl acetate with increasing specific surface area, while the conversion of methyl acetate decreased with increasing the weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) due to the external diffusion.