Externality

The Jolly Contrarian’s Glossary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ Go Premium Index — Click the ᐅ to expand: Glossary Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

In economics an unwanted consequence of a commercial activity which affects other parties; particularly one that is not fully costed into the activity or reflected in market prices. A bummer, in other words. Classic example: air pollution from traffic and machinery.

See also

• RAG status