Victimization and Skill Accumulation

Abstract

Recent literature has shown that skills are not only essential for the development of successful adults, but also that they are malleable and prone to be affected by many experiences, especially during childhood. This work examines how bullying depletes skills in schoolchildren. I formulate a dynamic model of skill accumulation with endogenous victimization based on the identification of unobserved heterogeneity. I allow victimization to depend on each student’s traits and those of their classmates. Using a unique longitudinal data set of middle school students, I find that victimization depletes current skill levels by 40 percent of a standard deviation for the average child. This skill depletion causes the individual to become 34 percent more likely to experience bullying again. Therefore, bullying triggers a self-reinforcing mechanism that opens an ever-growing skill gap. Finally, I find evidence that supports the allocation of students in more skill-homogeneous classrooms as a tool to reduce victimization.