Pat?s research focuses on stratification and mobility, with a specialized interest in the role that places and neighborhoods play in generating and maintaining inequality across multiple dimensions. One strand of his research seeks to describe and explain the persistence of neighborhood inequality in America?s cities, and the mechanisms by which this inequality persists over time and across generations of family members. A second strand of his work focuses on the consequences of persistent neighborhood inequality for the life chances of individuals from different racial and ethnic groups in America.