Die Kennzeichnung von Lebensmitteln ist zu einem viel diskutierten Element der Ernährungs- und Verbraucherpolitik geworden. Dabei existiert eine große Vielfalt von Labels, die auf sehr verschiedene Eigenschaften der Lebensmittel ausgerichtet und mit unterschiedlichsten Instrumenten der...

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...

This paper focuses on a major difference between markets for physical goods and for services. It is argued that dishonest sellers of physical goods are eventually identified and forced to leave the market. In contrast, dishonest sellers of services can effectively mimic honest competitors and...

People consume not only physical goods but also social interaction, and consumer choices depend on both intrinsic motivations (preferences for consumption) and extrinsic motivations (how choices impact social interactions). In this paper, we study how social identity, preference, and utility...

This Article argues that freedom of contract will take on different meaning in a world in which ubiquitous information about places, goods, people, firms and contract terms is available to contracting parties anywhere, any time. In particular, our increasingly “augmented reality” calls into...

Each year, millions of financially distressed consumers in the U.S. face a difficult choice among the debt relief options available to them. This paper describes the options available to borrowers who seek assistance in managing their debts and discusses the information and incentive problems...

The paper solves a puzzle related to unsecured credit and the use of credit scores. With credit scores increasingly present in credit decisions, and with the increased use of credit cards, especially in categories at risk of large negative health shocks, asymmetry of information between banks...

Consumers often cannot judge the quality of goods and services at the time of the purchase decision. The goodwill model explains how the market participants deal with this problem. It makes a distinction between markets for search goods, experience goods and credence goods. In markets for...

We consider optional TOU (time-of-use) pricing for residential consumers as an alternative to a single TOU or flat rate structure offered by a publicly regulated electricity supplier. A general equilibrium model is developed and used to explore and quantify the effects of optional pricing on...

Rapid technological developments in online markets fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and sellers. Online platforms can now easily gather data about the consumer and his search behavior, that allow for price discrimination. Therefore the consumers' product search becomes a...