In addition to describing the history of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Taiwan, the government's measures to contain the outbreak, and the actual economic impacts of SARS on Taiwan's economy, this paper presents the results of a multiregional computable general equilibrium model (Global Trade Analysis Project model version 6.2) that predicts the outbreak's consequences to 31 service and manufacturing sectors in Taiwan and to the GDP of 16 regions. The results of a short-term outbreak (less than 1 year), taking into account capital accumulation, are compared with those of a longer outbreak (more than 1 year). The losses to GDP are also predicted for the cases in which (1) China provides complete information on its SARS cases and (2) it fails to fully disclose the progress of the outbreak there to the international community. For a short-term outbreak, the simulation predicts losses to GDP of the service and manufacturing sectors of 0.67 percent in Taiwan, 0.20 percent in mainland China, and 1.56 percent in Hong Kong. If SARS is a long-run phenomenon, a lack of transparent disclosure about the progress of SARS on the part of the Chinese authorities could cause an additional 1.6 percent decline in China's GDP, according to the simulation. Copyright (c) 2004 Center for International Development and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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This study examines the lower and higher boundaries for the threshold value to be considered an indicator of unemployment in a specific country. Specially, the objective is to conduct the critical moment of hysteresis effects happening in unemployment rate using a group of 16 organization for economic cooperation and development of countries. The methodological strategy applies a developed tool of threshold tests involving unit root against stationary but nonlinear alternative by Caner and Hansen (2001). A significant contribution of this study is identifying a trigger point from the nonstationary of time series process for the first time in the literature. Our empirical results finds strong evidence of the existence of nonlinear stationary in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands and the USA when the threshold effect holds. The hysteresis hypothesis is further confirmed by the fact that the unemployment rate exceeds the boundaries of the band, for Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan and the USA when the threshold unit root test of Caner and Hansen is rigorously implemented.

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This study examines the lower and higher boundaries for the threshold value to be considered an indicator of unemployment in a specific country. Specially, the objective is to conduct the critical moment of hysteresis effects happening in unemployment rate using a group of 16 OECD countries. The methodological strategy applies a developed tool of threshold tests involving unit root against stationary but nonlinear alternative by Caner and Hansen (2001). A significant contribution of this study is identifying a trigger point from the nonstationary of time series process for the first time in the literature. Our empirical results finds strong evidence of the existence of nonlinear stationary in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands and the USA when the threshold effect holds. The hysteresis hypothesis is further confirmed by the fact that the unemployment rate exceeds the boundaries of the band, for Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan and the USA when the threshold unit root test of Caner and Hansen is rigorously implemented.