Moral Hazard vs. Morale Hazard: An Overview
Moral hazard and morale hazard are very similar-sounding terms, and while they are even close in meaning, the subtle difference between them is an important one. While both terms describe a change in behavior related to risk, one implies certain malice, while the other depicts a more benign evolution.
Key Takeaways
- Moral hazard refers to behavioral changes that might occur and increase the risk of loss when a person knows that insurance will provide coverage.
- When a person can avoid the potential consequences of a risk, their actions, and attitude change and there is a greater likelihood of a moral hazard.
- Morale hazard describes the same kind of behavioral change that might occur when a person knows insurance will cover them, but in this case, it’s subconscious.
- The critical difference between moral hazard and morale hazard is conscious vs. subconscious, which speaks to the intent of the covered party.
Moral Hazard
Moral hazard describes the behavioral changes that might increase the risk of loss taken because the actor will not bear responsibility should things go wrong. Insurance industry people use to term to refer to the possibility that after receiving coverage, a person might act in a risky way for personal gain because the insurance company will have to cover all losses. Moral hazard is the idea that insurance promotes risk-taking for personal gain.
Moral hazard describes a conscious change in behavior to try to benefit from an event that occurs. Conversely, morale hazard describes an unconscious change in a person’s behavior when he is insured.
Morale Hazard
Morale hazard is an insurance term used to describe an insured person’s attitude about their belongings. It represents the rise of indifference to loss because the items are covered. For example, suppose a person pays insurance for their new phone.
Morale hazard arises when the model of their phone becomes outdated, and they no longer care about it. They are indifferent to their phone getting damaged because their insurance would allow them to get a new one. Their indifferent attitude toward their phone leads to unconsciously changed behavior.
The critical difference between moral hazard and morale hazard is the intent. Moral hazard described the intentional seeking of risk for personal gain because you do not bear the cost of failure. Morale hazard describes indifference to unintentional risk.
Moral Hazard Example
One type of moral hazard is ex-ante. Ex-ante hazard defines the behavioral change of a policyholder before an event occurs. For example, suppose Aang, a professional cliff diver, does not have health insurance. They go through their career without doing the dangerous dives that could send them to the hospital. Aang knows should they get hurt and need to go to the hospital, they will have to pay the medical bills out-of-pocket. Aang decides to get health insurance, and once their insurance policy goes into effect, they begin to do the dangerous dives. Aang, consciously, takes on riskier behavior than they had before they got insurance because they have reduced their liability.
Ex-post moral hazard refers to the behavior of a party after an event occurs. For example, suppose a person takes out a loan from a bank to start a business. After they receive the credit, they may say their business failed—although it was profitable—to get a bailout or tax write-off. This purposeful behavior is known as an ex-post moral hazard.
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