In this article, the results of a consumer survey for Germany are presented. Extrinsic cues play an important role for quality selection in the shop. Here``country of origin'' and``place of purchase'' play a dominant role. To judge the eating quality of fresh meat, those experience quality attribute cues, which are hard to measure with characteristics, like flavour or smell, seem to be the most important. For assessing the safety of meat,``country of origin'' as an extrinsic credence quality attribute cue and``freshness'' as an intrinsic credence quality attribute cue are of most importance.``Country of origin'' is used by consumers not only to predict eating quality but also to indicate safety. This holds not only for beef, but also for pork and, to a lesser extent, chicken. The most trusted source of information on the safety of meat is the butcher.

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Consumer advice should reduce asymmetric information between consumer and supplier as well as provide confidence in markets. However, consumer advice itself is characterised by asymmetric information between adviser and consumer. The article figures out this aspect and shows how consumers cope with this information situation under certain consumer policy conditions. For the sake of clarity it examplifies consumer advice by refering to the work of Verbraucherzentrale Baden- Württemberg e. V., a German consumer association. The article concludes with the recommendation, that consumer advice is useful for consumer policy only when granting consumers interest. Das verbraucherpolitische Instrument Verbraucherberatung soll die asymmetrische Informationsverteilung zwischen Verbrauchern und Unternehmen abbauen und Vertrauen in Märkte schaffen. Bei dieser Aufgabenstellung wird vernachlässigt, dass Verbraucherberatung selbst durch die asymmetrische Informationsverteilung zwischen Berater und Ratsuchendem gekennzeichnet ist. Der Beitrag arbeitet diesen Aspekt heraus und zeigt am Beispiel der Verbraucherberatung der Verbraucherzentralen und aus der Beratungspraxis der Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg e. V., auf welche Weise Verbraucherberatung verbraucherpolitisch genutzt werden kann.Economics of information, consumer advice, consumer policy

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