1st Edition

The Financial and Economic Crises and Their Impact on Health and Social Well-Being

By Vicente Navarro, Carles Muntaner Copyright 2014
    516 Pages
    by Routledge

    516 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume provides a timely collection of the most germane studies and commentaries on the complex links between recent changes in national economies, welfare regimes, social inequalities, and population health. Drs. Vicente Navarro and Carles Muntaner have selected 24 representative articles, organized around six themes, from the widely read pages of the International Journal of Health Services (2006-2013) - articles that not only challenge conventional approaches to population health but offer new insights and robust results that critically advance public health scholarship. Part I applies a social-conflict perspective to better understand how political forces, processes, and institutions precede and give rise to social inequalities, economic instability, and population health. The need to politicize dominant (neoliberal) ideologies is emphasized, given its explanatory power to elucidate unequal power relations. The next four parts focus on the health impacts of growing inequalities and economic decline on government services and transfers (Part II); labor markets and employment conditions (Part III); welfare states and regimes (Part IV); and social class relations (Part V). Part VI advocates for a more politically engaged approach to population health and presents alternative solutions to achieving egalitarian outcomes, which, in turn, improve health and reduce health inequalities. Taken together, the works in this volume reflect IJHS 's collective commitment to publishing high-impact studies, inspiring fruitful debates, and advancing the discipline in new and essential ways. Emerging and established researchers as well as students and professionals committed to health equity matters will benefit from this book's astute contributions.

    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 Burström, Margaret Whitehead, Finn Diderichsen, Espen Dahl, Ben Barr, Lotta Nylén, 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 Burström, 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 Burström, 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
    José 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

    Biography

    Vicente Navarro, Carles Muntaner