Free exchange - How to think about moral hazard during a pandemic | Finance and economics | The Economist
▻https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/04/25/how-to-think-about-moral-hazard-during-a-pandemic
Economists are rightly relaxed about the risks for now
Covid-19 confronts humanity with a host of testing moral decisions. When hospital capacity is limited, which patients should get access to life-saving equipment? For how long should virus-limiting restrictions on public activity remain in place, given the immense cost of such measures? To this list, some add another: how generous should public assistance to struggling households and firms be, when such aid could encourage the abuse of state-provided safety-nets? Worries like these, concerning what social scientists call #moral_hazard, have been relatively muted during the pandemic, and appropriately so. But hard questions about risk and responsibility cannot be put off for ever.
#risque #aléa_moral et #pandémie, mais aussi #changement_climatique
ping @freakonometrics