skills produced at one stage raise the productivity of investment at subsequent stages. Importantly, skills are multidimensional and are likely to complement each other. In
this context, coping with victimization of bullying early in life directs resources away from investment in other skills. In addition, to the extent that bullying exerts a direct
negative impact on self- esteem and other noncognitive skills as suggested above, edu- cational and labor market success are also affected through this channel Heckman
2008; Waddell 2006. The loss in terms of education, health, and lifetime earnings potential may be enormous if bullying is interpreted in this framework.
B. Prior Evidence About Childhood Bullying
In this section, we review the literature on predictors of being bullied in order to obtain a guideline for defi ning the conditioning set in our study of the potential effect of
victimization on scholastic achievement. Brown and Taylor 2008 is one of the few existing studies that actually investigates
the link between bullying and educational attainment. It fi nds that strong predictors of being bullied at age 11 are: being a boy, having disabilities, unattractive physical
appearance, personality traits, and number of schools attended. Henningsen 2009 identifi es the two main determinants of victimization as low
family income and not feeling safe with one’s parents. However, parental education and divorce as well as more rare instances such as serious illness in the family, ac-
cidents, foster care, drug abuse, and sexual assault also correlate with victimization. Wolke et al. 2001 confi rms that low socioeconomic status correlates positively with
victimization and moreover fi nds that ethnic backgroundskin color is an important predictor.
A plausible hypothesis is that not only individual characteristics but also the institu- tional framework matters for the prevalence of bullying. However, Persson and Svens-
son 2010 fi nds no effects of class size on victimization. Obviously, school- based anti- bullying programs might also infl uence the prevalence of bullying. Farrington and
Ttofi 2009 systematically reviews evaluations of such programs and fi nds that long, high- intensity interventions that emphasize teacher and parent training, among other
things, effectively reduce bullying and victimization.
Based on the literature reviewed, the conditioning set in our study of the potential effect of victimization on educational achievement should preferably include socio-
economic variables such as gender, age, ethnic origin, family resources and strains, as well as individual characteristics such as personality traits, psychological factors,
disabilities, physical appearance, and physical weaknessstrength. Among institutional characteristics, the previous literature indicates that class size is of less importance
while school and teacher characteristics or fi xed effects should be included to account for antibullying prevention and related policies.
III. Institutional Context and Data
