When entering graduate school, Garrison's primary field of research was macroeconomics and monetary theory. Garrison's key contribution to the field was his graphical representation of the
Austrian Business Cycle Theory. His first paper on the topic, "Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition" was initially drafted as a term paper in his master's program and presented at a meeting in Chicago in 1973. He rewrote it and presented the new version in September 1976 at an
Institute for Humane Studies symposium at
Windsor Castle. This version would later be published as a monograph in 1978. He would later expand upon these ideas in later journal articles, including "Phillips Curves and Hayekian Triangles: Two Perspectives on Monetary Dynamics" (1988) coauthored with Don Bellante, Professor of Economics at the
University of South Florida. In 2001,
Routledge published his book
Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure. He added that his "fundamental idea is that if interest rates, broadly conceived, are allowed to be determined by unhampered market mechanisms, the temporal structure of capital will tend to be consistent with consumers’ (and savers’) preferred temporal pattern of consumption. And conversely, if interest rates are manipulated by a central monetary authority, the temporal structure will develop internal inconsistencies, will be at odds with the preferred temporal pattern, and will give rise to booms and busts." On 13 February 2026, Garrison died in
Auburn, Alabama, at the age of 82. ==See also==