How being a victim of school bullying affects your labor market career

Do victims of bullying at school still suffer later in their working lives? A new IZA Discussion Paper by Nick Drydakis answers this question by examining the long-term correlations between bullying in school and adult employment outcomes. Bullying experiences might decrease a victim’s productivity through lower academic achievement and mental health problems later in life. The empirical findings confirm this hypothesis: Labor force participation, employment probability, and hourly wages are negatively affected for bullying victims. Men are more likely to suffer from long-term consequences of bullying than women. Most vulnerable to the effects are homosexuals, immigrants, unmarried people, and those with low human capital and poor mental health.