for their able and enthusiastic help in compiling data for this research. Carsten Holz was generous in helping us with conceptual issues and data problems. Sylvie Demurger generously provided her data on infrastructure and the population with schooling at the secondary level and higher. We thank

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We dedicate this paper to the memory of Mark C. Berger, who died in 2003 at the peak of his career. Mark Berger was the PhD student of Belton Fleisher and the PhD advisor of Klara Sabirianova. He will long be remembered as a noted contributor to our understanding of labor economics, as a devoted teacher and advisor, and as an outstanding member of his community.Fleisher, Belton M., Sabirianova, Klara, and Wang, Xiaojun-Returns to skills and the speed of reforms: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe, China, and RussiaUsing metadata from 39 studies of 11 countries, we explore the growth in returns to schooling during transition across Central and Eastern European countries, Russia, and China. China differs from the other countries in exhibiting a relatively slow increase in returns to schooling. We investigate the relative importance of the slow decay of the effects of wage grids compared to the return to the ability that educated individuals have in taking advantage of economic disequilibria caused by reform. Both explanations receive empirical support. We also investigate the systematic effects of sample characteristics, estimation methods, and model specifications on estimated returns to schooling. Journal of Comparative Economics 33 (2) (2005) 351-370. The