Introduction Vicente Navarro and Carles Muntaner PART I The Causes of the Crisis 1. Neoliberalism as a Class Ideology; Or, The Political Causes of the Growth of Inequalities Vicente Navarro 2. The Crisis and Fiscal Policies in the Peripheral Countries of the Eurozone Vicente Navarro PART II The Crisis and Its Consequences for Welfare Services and Transfers 3. The Effects of Health Care Reforms on Health Inequalities: A Review and Analysis of the European Evidence Base Elena Gelormino, Clare Bambra, Teresa Spadea, Silvia Bellini, and Giuseppe Costa 4. Ditching the Single-Payer System in the National Health Service: How the English Department of Health is Learning the Wrong Lessons from the United States Lucy Reynolds, Clare Gerada, and Martin McKee 5. Visits to Family Physicians or Specialists by Elderly Persons in Canada and the United States: An Exploratory Comparative Study Mark S. Kaplan, Nathalie Huguet, David Feeny, Bentson H. McFarland, and Stacey S. Williams 6. Minimum Income Protection and European Integration: Trends and Levels of Minimum Benefits in Comparative Perspective, 1990-2005 Kenneth Nelson PART III The Crisis and Changes in the Labor Market 7. Employment Relations and Global Health: A Typological Study of World Labor Markets Haejoo Chung, Carles Muntaner, Joan Benach, and the EMCONET Network 8. The Impact of Public Employment on Health and Health Inequalities: Evidence from China Wei Zhang 9. Ensuring a Healthy and Productive Workforce: Comparing the Generosity of Paid Sick Day and Sick Leave Policies in 22 Countries Jody Heymann, Hye Jin Rho, John Schmitt, and Alison Earle 10. Overstretched and Unreciprocated Commitment: Reviewing Research on the Occupational Health and Safety Effects of Downsizing and Job Insecurity Michael Quinlan and Philip Bohle 11. Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Erosion Accelerates in the Recession Elise Gould 12. How Do Macro-Level Contexts and Policies Affect the Employment Chances of Chronically Ill and Disabled People? The Impact of Recession and Deindustrialization Paula Holland, Bo Burstrom, Margaret Whitehead, Finn Diderichsen, Espen Dahl, Ben Barr, Lotta Nylen, Wen-Hao Chen, Karsten Thielen, Kjetil A. van der Wel, Stephen Clayton, and Sharanjit Uppal PART IV Changes in the Welfare States 13. Different Welfare States-Different Policies? An Analysis of the Substance of National Health Promotion Policies in Three European Countries Elisabeth Fosse 14. Social Inequalities in "Sickness": Does Welfare State Regime Type Make a Difference? A Multilevel Analysis of Men and Women in 26 European Countries Kjetil A. van der Wel, Espen Dahl, and Karsten Thielen 15. Welfare State Regime Life Courses: The Development of Western European Welfare State Regimes and Age-Related Patterns of Educational Inequalities in Self-Reported Health Clare Bambra, Gopalakrishnan Netuveli, and Terje A. Eikemo 16. Variation of Socioeconomic Gradients in Children's Developmental Health Across Advanced Capitalist Societies: Analysis of 22 OECD Nations Arjumand Siddiqi, Ichiro Kawachi, Lisa Berkman, S. V. Subramanian, and Clyde Hertzman 17. Gender Policy Developments and Policy Regimes in 22 OECD Countries, 1979-2008 Mona C. Backhans, Bo Burstrom, and Staffan Marklund 18. Analyzing Differences in the Magnitude of Socioeconomic Inequalities in Self-Perceived Health by Countries of Different Political Tradition in Europe Carme Borrell, Albert Espelt, Maica Rodriguez-Sanz, Bo Burstrom, Carles Muntaner, M. Isabel Pasarin, Joan Benach, Chiara Marinacci, Albert-Jan Roskam, Maartje Schaap, Enrique Regidor, Giuseppe Costa, Paula Santana, Patrick Deboosere, Anton Kunst, and Vicente Navarro PART V Changes in Class Inequalities 19. Class Divisions and Health Chances in Brazil Jose Alcides Figueiredo Santos 20. Wealth Inequality and Health: A Political Economy Perspective Nadine R. Nowatzki 21. The Other Side of the Chinese Economic Miracle Wei Zhang PART VI Focus on Solutions 22. Social Class, Politics, and the Spirit Level: Why Income Inequality Remains Unexplained and Unsolved Carles Muntaner, Nanky Rai, Edwin Ng, and Haejoo Chung 23. The Solution Space: Developing Research and Policy Agendas to Eliminate Employment-Related Health Inequalities Carles Muntaner, Sanjeev Sridharan, Haejoo Chung, Orielle Solar, Michael Quinlan, Montserrat Vergara, Joan Benach, and the EMCONET Network 24. Why We Don't Spend Enough on Public Health: An Alternative View Vicente Navarro About the Editors About the Authors