Taxes and the Structure of Production

Abstract

In Austrian theory, the business cycle is caused by expansive monetary policy, which artificially lowers the interest rate below equilibrium rates, necessarily lengthening the structure of production. Can tax alterations also cause an Austrian business cycle? Only if they affect time preference rates, the determinant of the shape of the Hayekian triangle. It is the contention of this paper that changes in taxes possibly can (but need not) impact time preference rates. Thus there may be a causal relation between fiscal policy and the business cycle, but this is not a necessary connection, as there is between monetary policy and the business cycle. This is contentious, since some Austrians argue that there is a praxeological link between tax policy and time preference rates.