Framing transport-environmental policy: The case of company car taxation in Israel

Economic tools, include a number of tax-related tools, are often seen as efficient and effective transport-environmental policy tools. However, since tax policies are usually under the authority of non-transport actors, transport-environmental policy makers face a major challenge in mobilizing these actors to promote policies that conform with transport-environmental goals. The challenge can be regarded as a framing exercise since it affects the public debate, the rhetoric against and for the policy, the coalition structure and the likelihood of promoting and implementing the policy. To demonstrate the importance of policy framing, this paper examines the case of Israel's taxation policy on company cars and the efforts to increase these taxes. The policy proposal was framed as a fiscal policy. Both institutional and public discourse concentrated on tax issues and transport and environmental issues were hardly raised. Tradeoffs exist between different choices of policy framing and there is a need to distinguish between institutional framing and public framing.