Monetary causes of the business cycle

This thesis deals with the monetary theory of business cycles as presented by the so called Austrian school of economics. It analyzes the different economic effects of investments financed by saving as opposed to investments financed by credit expansion. It shows that in the latter case an unsustainable situation results in which economic actors try both to invest and to consume more at the same time, which is physically impossible. The result is recession and liquidation of malinvestments made during the boom. The thesis also provides an answer to critiques of the Austrian business cycle theory by proponents of the rational expectations hypothesis. Furthermore, a critique of traditional national income accounting measures, namely GDP, is put forward. These measures fail to adequately show the described cyclical changes in the economy's productive structure, e.g. the artificial boom and subsequent correction. Gross domestic revenue (GDR) is proposed as an alternative measure that adds the expenditure on intermediate products back to GDP. In the last part of the thesis GDR is calculated for the Czech economy.