Becky Pettit, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Washington, will pursue two projects on the role of institutional factors on labor market opportunities and patterns of inequality. Pettit's first project examines the role the prison system plays in perpetuating racial and class inequality in employment and earnings by examining data on inmates' post-release employment histories compared with those of non-inmates. Pettit's second project will examine cross-country variation in women's labor force participation. In this project she will investigate the relationship between female employment and structural features of labor markets, such as tax policy, family leave policy, and public childcare.