There is provided a composition for forming anti-reflective coating for use in a lithography which has a high effect of inhibiting reflected light, causes no intermixing with resist layers, affords excellent resist patterns, has a higher dry etching rate compared with the resist, and has broader margin of depth of focus and higher resolution than the prior compositions.Concretely, the composition is one for forming anti-reflective coating for use in a lithographic process in manufacture of a semiconductor device, and comprises a resin containing a lactone structure. The resin is one which a γ-lactone structure or a δ-lactone structure is introduced to a main chain thereof or a side chain bonded to the main chain.