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To promote transparency and provide information, the Federal Planning Bureau regularly publishes the methods and results of its works. The publications are organised in different series, such as Outlooks, Working Papers and Planning Papers. Some reports can be consulted here, along with the Short Term Update newsletters that were published until 2015. You can search our publications by theme, publication type, author and year.
The Flemish Region in Belgium reformed its registration tax for passenger cars and its annual road tax in 2012 and 2016 respectively. We find that those reforms have caused an accelerated, but small, decrease in the CO2 emission factors of new cars sold in Flanders.
Working Papers - Working Paper 10-24 (en), (nl),
This paper gives a non-technical description of the PLANET and CASMO models. The main results of the models are presented using the reference scenario for the costing exercise. Several policy scenarios and their results are also presented, for illustration purposes.
Working Papers - DC2024_WP_07 (fr), (nl),
This report uses the PLANET model to examine the impact of an alternative train offer on passenger transport demand by 2040. For this purpose, the results of several alternative scenarios are compared with the reference scenario of the transport outlook published in April 2022.
Reports - Rep_12889 (nl),
The aim of this report is to study the effects on freight transport demand of the abolition of the refund of excise duties on professional diesel, using the PLANET model. The analysis compares the results published in April 2022 in the Outlook for transport demand in Belgium with a variant counting on the abolition of this regime for trucks from 2025 (t+1 in the model).
Reports - REP_PLANET_12888 (fr),
Articles - Article 017 (fr), (nl),
Suburbanisation is a well-established phenomenon in the developments of Western societies. It carries the risk of increasing transport demand, in the periphery and towards urban centres, going against sustainability objectives. This work sheds light on the link between suburbanisation and transport demand. Two demographic development scenarios are considered, framing the reference scenario of the April 2022 Transport Demand Outlook. Their effect on transport demand is analysed.
Working Papers - Working Paper 06-23 (fr),
We present a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis per market segment and powertrain of new cars sold in Belgium. We differentiate our results between cars sold to private households and company cars. Even though the median TCO of electric cars is lower than the median TCO of conventional powertrains in several market segments, there is a significant overlap in the TCOs of different powertrains in each market segment. It is therefore important to consider the whole distribution of the TCO.
Working Papers - Working Paper 05-23 (en), (nl),
In Belgium, the Law on Fiscal and Social Greening of Mobility of 25 November 2021 eliminates corporate tax deductibility for all company cars except those with zero CO2 emissions. The main effect of the tax reform is an accelerated electrification of the company car fleet and an accelerated decline in CO2 emissions. Compared to the no-reform scenario, the reform leads to an increase in net tax revenues of about 1 billion euro on an annual basis.
Working Papers - Working Paper 06-22 (en), (nl),
Forecasts & Outlook - FORTRANSP_22 (fr), (nl),
Reports - REP_12622 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - IIS 01 (fr), (nl),
While automated car driving may bring important benefits in terms of traffic safety, we should not be blind to other effects: full automation is likely to lead to increases in car traffic, mostly for transport that is not related to commuting. This is likely lead to further reductions in road speed in the areas that already suffer the most from the congestion.
Articles - Article 009 (en), (fr), (nl),
This working paper describes main evolutions in household expenditure for transport in Belgium. Results are based on data from national accounts (National Accounts Institute, Eurostat) as well as data from Household budget surveys (Statbel).
Working Papers - Working Paper 01-21 (fr),
A policy mix of “stick” measures (generalised distance based road charge) and “carrot” measures (supporting carpooling) could induce an increase in the occupation rate of cars in Belgium from 1.44 to 1.50. This relatively modest increase can be explained by the relatively small share of trips for which an increase in the occupation rate is a realistic option, and by the inconveniences linked to the organisation of carpooling. Nevertheless, this policy mix can induce a notable improvement in the traffic situation during the peak periods in the regions that currently suffer the most from congestion.
Articles - Article 006
The aim of this study is to take a step back about teleworking as a tool to tackle mobility issues. Beyond the renewed interest in the public debate from which teleworking benefits, and its strong emphasis since the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, the aim here is to use reliable sources and proven models to identify the relationship between increased teleworking and decreased transport demand. To this end, the PLANET model of the Federal Planning Bureau has been adapted to explicitly take into account changes in this practice in its long-term projections.
Working Papers - Working Paper 06-20 (fr),
Articles - Article 005
This report quantifies the marginal external cost of transport (congestion costs and environmental costs) using the Federal Planning Bureau’s PLANET model and compares this to the transport taxes levied. These indicators were not covered in the ‘Projections of transport demand in Belgium by 2040’, published in 2019 by the Federal Planning Bureau and the FPS Mobility and Transport. In that sense this report supplements this publication.
Reports - REP 12117 (nl),
PLANET is a model developed by the Belgian Federal PLANning Bureau that models the relationship between Economy and Transport. Its aim is to produce: (i) medium- and long-term projections of transport demand in Belgium, both for passenger and freight transport; (ii) simulations of the effects of transport policy measures; (iii) cost-benefit analyses of transport policy measures. This methodological report describes the main features of the PLANET model, and more specifically, the version 4.0 used for the transport outlook published in January 2019.
Working Papers - Working Paper 01-20 (en),
We compare the TCO of fully electric cars (BEV) with those of diesel and gasoline cars. In the size class “small”, BEV only have a lower TCO for an expected lifetime that exceeds most estimates of the planning horizon people use when purchasing cars. In the size class “medium”, BEVs have a lower TCO than conventional cars if their expected lifetime mileage is high enough. “Big” electric cars have higher TCO than their conventional counterparts for any reasonable assumption regarding their use profiles.
Reports - REP_VHSTCOBEV_12036 (en),
This paper seeks to quantify the cost of the most important inefficiencies in Belgian transport taxation. To this end we calculate the welfare gain of an ideal, optimal tax/subsidy system across the transport market as a whole (i.e. considering private road traffic in conjunction with public transport). We found the total welfare gain to be 2.3 billion euros, of which 1.3 billion are due to time gains of remaining road users. Our measure lies significantly above those found in the literature, since we consider the distortion cause by a wide range of subsidies.
Working Papers - Working Paper 09-19 (en), (fr), (nl),
Within the framework of a cooperation agreement between the Federal Planning Bureau and the Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport, the Federal Planning Bureau produces, every three years, long-term projections of transport demand in Belgium. This exercise is the fourth of its kind so far. It aims to make a projection of no change in policy, indicating general long-term trends and allowing elements on which transport policy should be based to be identified and the impact of transport policy measures to be studied.
Forecasts & Outlook - FORTRANSP_19 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
The new Belgian CAr Stock MOdel, which is linked to the national transport demand model PLANET, is structured as follows: (a) The total desired car stock in each future year is a function of the country’s population and GDP per capita. (b) The probability that a car is scrapped is modelled as a function of its age and accumulated mileage. The desired car stock is then confronted with the remaining car stock to determine total car purchases. (c) Total sales are allocated to individual emission classes, using the parameter values of a Stated Preference discrete choice model. The model is then calibrated in order to reflect the current market and policy context in Belgium (d) The results are mapped into an inventory that is aggregated according to the EURO emission class. (e) In order to represent that the non-price barriers to electrified cars will decrease over time, we have implemented an alternative approach where the perceived acquisition costs decrease over time. Alternatively, this approach can be used to explore what would be the required decrease in subjective costs to reach a given future market share.
Working Papers - Working Paper 01-19 (en),
Transport models used for long-term projections should reflect the impact of shared, automated and electric mobility modes. The objective of the current paper is to derive lessons from the existing literature on vehicle ownership modelling to find options to further improve the PLANET model, which is used for projections of transport demand in Belgium.
PLANET is already well equipped to represent the impacts of shared and automated cars on the opportunity cost of travel time, the load factors and the annual mileage of cars.
Working Papers - Working Paper 08-17 (en),
The goal of this paper is to estimate the efficiency cost of one additional euro of revenue through the personal income tax system, considering its simultaneous effects on the labour market and the transport market. More precisely, we seek to derive estimates of the Marginal Excess Burden of marginal personal income tax rates in Belgium considering the subsidization of company cars. We find that taking into account of welfare losses in the transport market adds 5-7 cents to the welfare cost of an additional euro of tax revenue, compared to models that consider only the effects on the labour market. The cost of raising the top marginal tax rate rises by 28% to 58% depending on the model assumptions. As an aside, we estimate tax expenditure on the transport sector via the personal income tax system to be 1.9 billion euro. We conclude that there is scope for welfare improving by base broadening and rate cutting. The framework is applied to analyse the merits of cash-for-car proposals.
Working Papers - Working Paper 07-17 (en),
Working Papers - Working Paper 02-17 (fr),
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