本文主要新的議題是信用擴張對於消費部門的影響，傳統奧地利學派在解釋景氣循環現象時，多把焦點集中在生產部門的討論，利用資本結構的概念說明在信用擴張下生產部門會產生錯誤投資的現象，這個錯誤投資的理論能夠解釋很大一部份景氣循環的成因。然而，當面對景氣由盛轉衰的過程確有稍嫌有所不足，我們知道，當信用擴張發生時，絕對會影響到生產和消費兩個部門，所以在解釋景氣循環時勢必要同時考慮來自這兩個面向的影響，因此，在本文中提出一個類似資本結構的消費結構來討論消費行為。除了一般所考慮到會影響消費行為的因素之外，本文利用消費知識費與消費行為時間的性質，讓消費具有資本的特性，進而建構一消費的結構。知識是人類行動的依據，不同的知識會引導出不同的行為模式，因此一旦知識改變行為也會隨之而有所不同；在信用擴張期間，所得突然地大幅度增加，然而，人們所擁有的消費知識並未隨之增加，這是因為知識的累積需要時間，因此在短期間消費知識和所得之間會出現落差，這樣的落差會導致錯誤消費的出現。而消費部門因為知識不足所產生的錯誤消費和生產部門因為信用擴張所導致的錯誤投資，這兩個力量就引導著景氣的興衰過程，最後提出台灣的經驗作為驗證。

The business cycle theory of Austrian economics explains effect of expansive-credit policies by conception of malinvestment, however, it emphasize the production sector but be short of referring to the consumption behavior. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the effect of credit expansion on the consumption behavior by means of consumption structure. With the consumption knowledge, we can then apply the notion of time-consuming to the process of consumption decision-making. The underlying explanation laid in this paper is that the time required to accumulate new consumption knowledge will restrict the readjustment of consumption behavior so that the discrepancy between consumption sector and production sector occurs. Moreover, this inconsistence may be one of forces to turn boom to bust.

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