One of my colleagues (an accounting professor) mentioned that he almost always applies for an extension on his taxes, and admitted that it was due to pure procrastination. He said that most accountants do this too (but said in their case it was that they had to do their clients’ taxes first). I said that it would be interesting to run a regression on the interest rate and the number of late (or early) tax returns filed. Presumably, the higher the interest rate, the higher the opportunity cost of delaying.
I realize this isn’t about Austrian economics per se, but this might be a good paper for a grad student who needs a topic. (Of course, for all I know this was tested in 1970. But hey, you can always use new data for a new paper!)
