Moral Hazards in Sustainability

The formulation of sustainability goals – implicitly or explicitly placed within the wider perspective of a “sustainable future” – is often characterised by a certain vagueness and arbitrariness. This allows for practices and outcomes which, although formally compliant with set objectives and benchmarks, generate misgivings as to how sustainable they truly are. The term “moral hazard”, widely used in economic discourse, is adopted here to encapsulate the decoupling between intended or declared objectives, on the one hand, and deviant actions with (nominally) undesired results, on the other. This volume addresses moral hazards in the context of sustainability research and policy from the economic, political, and ethical perspectives. With contributions by Christian Arnsperger | Ivo De Gennaro | Giulia Isetti | Ralf Lüfter | Ugo Mattei | Eugene Nulman | Sören Schuster | Oliver Schlaudt | Robert Simon | Jenny Ufer