Final Version

The Economy & Resources module (ECR) comprises three components: Economy, Resources, and the combined component of GDP, Trade, Energy, Resources, and Production/Distribution.

The Economy sub-module estimates total output, capital stock and labour use in the economy, for which the general drivers (GDP, household income per capita and population) are exogenously defined by the EU Reference Scenario 2013. These drivers are disaggregated from country to zone based on ETISplus data (regional GDP, regional population, and labour force). The combined component (GDP, Trade, Energy, Resources, Production/ Distribution) estimates and projects employment, trade, resource consumption, and purchasing power under various transport policy measures. Resources component calculates environmental indicators (without combustion) using the EXIOBASE database for CO2, NOx, SOx, PM, biomass, fossil fuel use, metal use, mineral use, wood use, and water use.

To generate economic output and environmental data, this module uses regional demographic and labour data provided by the Demography (DEM) module, transport costs by the Freight Demand (FRD) module, the type of vehicles purchased by the Vehicle Stock (VES) module, and passenger demand by the PAS module. The economic and environmental indicators generated are used in the other modules.

Economic indicators are a key driver of passenger and freight demand, and demand for vehicle stock. Hence, there is feedback between these modules. The ECR module generates updated employment and income data used in the DEM module to ensure consistency of population distribution and spatial economic development.