Johannes Siegrist is a Senior Professor of Work Stress Research at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany. Previously, he was Professor of Medical Sociology and Director of the respective Institute, and additionally Director of the Postgraduate School of Public Health at Duesseldorf University. His long-standing research is devoted to the study of adverse effects of modern working conditions on health, with a particular focus on their contribution to health inequalities. He is the author of one of the internationally acknowledged models of stressful work, ‘effort-reward imbalance’. Among the many papers and books the volume on ‘Social Inequalities in Health’, edited with Michael Marmot in 2006, deserves special attention. Among other distinctions he is Fellow of Academia Europaea (London) and Corresponding Member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.Morten Wahrendorf is a senior researcher at the Centre for Health and Society, University of Duesseldorf, Germanywith substantial expertise in sociology, research methodology and statistics. He has previously worked at the International Centre For Lifecourse Studies In Society and Health (ICLS) at University College London. His main research interest are health inequalities in ageing populations and underlying pathways, with a particular focus on psychosocial working conditions, patterns of participation in paid employment and social activities in later life, and lifecourse influences.

• Foreword.- Preface by Editors.- Part I: Effort-reward imbalance: Theory, measurement, and research perspectives.- Chapter 1: The theoretical model.- Chapter 2: Measuring effort-reward imbalance at work.- Chapter 3: A life course perspective.- Chapter 4: A social inequality and policy perspective.- Part II: Work stress and health: Reviewing the research evidence.- Chapter 5: Cardiovascular diseases.- Chapter 6: Affective disorders.- Chapter 7: Absenteeism and disability pensions.- Chapter 8: Pathways from work stress to reduced health: experimental and naturalistic studies.- Part III: The context of economic globalization.- Chapter 9: The case of Japan.- Chapter 10: The case of China.- Chapter 11: The case of Latin America.- Chapter 12: The case of Australia.- Part IV: Extensions beyond paid work.- Chapter 13: Failed social reciprocity in core areas of the life course.- Chapter 14: House and family work and health.- Part V: Interventions and policy implications.- Chapter 15: Improving interpersonal relations at work.- Chapter 16: Changing organizational structures and processes.- Chapter 17: Challenges of national and international policies.- List of Contributors.- Index.