moral hazard

noun

The prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.

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Meanings

nounmoral hazard (usually uncountable, plural moral hazards)

plural moral hazards

  1. uncountableusuallybusinessThe prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.

    And what about moral hazard—or concern that protecting the system, however errant the behaviour of certain bankers, will encourage more folly in the future?

    2008 October 4, William Keegan, “Moral hazard? It's just another danger along the capitalist way”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    2 more examples

    I go to a lot of pro-market think tank events where one speaker or another blames the financial crisis and the current recession on moral hazard, as well as basically everything else that has gone wrong in the last sixty years. I'm afraid I don't see it.

    2009 December 18, Megan McArdle, “How Big a Problem is Moral Hazard?”, in The Atlantic

    Pyne said the uncapped scheme introduced a “moral hazard” because it encouraged employers and workers to agree to overgenerous redundancy entitlements, knowing taxpayers would foot the bill if the company failed.

    2014 September 4, Lenore Taylor, quoting Christopher Pyne, “Capping redundancy payments fixes 'moral hazard', says Christopher Pyne”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Translations

Catalan risc moral
  • risc moralprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Chinese Cantonese 道德風險 /道德风险
  • 道德風險 /道德风险 (dou⁶ dak¹ fung¹ him²)prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Chinese Mandarin 道德風險 /道德风险
  • 道德風險 /道德风险 (dàodé fēngxiǎn)prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Dutch moreel wangedrag, moreel risico
  • moreel wangedragprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
  • moreel risicoprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Finnish moraalikato
  • moraalikatoprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
French hasard moral
  • hasard moralprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
German moralisches Risiko, Rationalitätsfalle
  • moralisches Risikoprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
  • Rationalitätsfalleprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Italian azzardo morale
  • azzardo moraleprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Polish pokusa nadużycia
  • pokusa nadużyciaprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Spanish riesgo moral
  • riesgo moralprospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk
Cite this entry
APA

moral hazard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20hazard

MLA

“moral hazard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20hazard. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “moral hazard,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20hazard.

Source: moral hazard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.