Editorials 388 Over the past few decades, the BRICS countries (Brazil, the Russian Federation , India, China and South Africa) have occupied a unique position in the world and in the international health community. Their growing economies have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. Marked improvements have also taken place in health outcomes, and substantial progress made towards achieving...

The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 21 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond simple comparisons of foreign aid, the CDI ranks countries on seven themes: quantity and quality of foreign aid, openness to developing-country exports, policies that influence investment, migration polic...

BACKGROUND We aimed to assess alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributed disease burden by DALYs (disability adjusted life years) in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) between 1990 and 2013, and explore to what extent these countries have implemented evidence-based alcohol policies during the same time period. METHODS A comparative risk assessment approach and...

This paper evaluates the impact of the positive terms of trade (TOT) Shock on macroeconomic variables, using panel data for the six OPEC major oil exporting countries during 1989-2005. The findings indicate that the positive TOT shocks have the small and negative impact on savings and on the trade balance. Nevertheless, it has a positive impact on investment (specifically private investment) an...