TY - GEN AB - The principle of limited liability is one of the defining characteristics of modern corporate capitalism. It is also, we argue in this article, a powerful structural source of moral hazard. Engaging in a double conceptual genealogy, we investigate how the concepts of moral hazard and limited liability have evolved and diffused over time. We highlight two parallel but unconnected paths of construction, diffusion, moral contestation, and eventual institutionalization. We bring to the fore clear elective affinities between both concepts and their respective evolution. Going one step further, we suggest that both concepts have come to be connected through time. In the context of contemporary capitalism, limited liability has to be understood, we argue, as a powerful structural source of moral hazard. In conclusion, we propose that this structural link between limited liability and moral hazard is an important explanatory factor of the systemic instability of contemporary capitalism and, as a consequence, of a pattern of recurrent crises that are regularly disrupting our economies and societies. AU - Salles-Djelic, Marie-Laure AU - Bothello, Joel DA - 2013 DO - 10.1007/s11186-013-9206-z DO - doi ID - 298024 L1 - https://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/298024/files/Theory-and-Society-Djelic-2013.pdf L2 - https://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/298024/files/Theory-and-Society-Djelic-2013.pdf L4 - https://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/298024/files/Theory-and-Society-Djelic-2013.pdf LK - https://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/298024/files/Theory-and-Society-Djelic-2013.pdf N2 - The principle of limited liability is one of the defining characteristics of modern corporate capitalism. It is also, we argue in this article, a powerful structural source of moral hazard. Engaging in a double conceptual genealogy, we investigate how the concepts of moral hazard and limited liability have evolved and diffused over time. We highlight two parallel but unconnected paths of construction, diffusion, moral contestation, and eventual institutionalization. We bring to the fore clear elective affinities between both concepts and their respective evolution. Going one step further, we suggest that both concepts have come to be connected through time. In the context of contemporary capitalism, limited liability has to be understood, we argue, as a powerful structural source of moral hazard. In conclusion, we propose that this structural link between limited liability and moral hazard is an important explanatory factor of the systemic instability of contemporary capitalism and, as a consequence, of a pattern of recurrent crises that are regularly disrupting our economies and societies. PY - 2013 T1 - Limited liability and its moral hazard implicationsthe systemic inscription of instability in contemporary capitalism TI - Limited liability and its moral hazard implicationsthe systemic inscription of instability in contemporary capitalism UR - https://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/298024/files/Theory-and-Society-Djelic-2013.pdf Y1 - 2013 ER -