The Puget Sound Regional Council used a variation of a regional model called the Puget Sound Economic Forecaster (PSEF) model, developed by Dick Conway and Associates and adapted to the agency’s needs via a consultant contract. In structure, the PSEF model is a simultaneous equations econometric model, reflecting economic base theory. Under this concept, growth is directly tied to the growth in sectors that export goods or services outside the region, thereby bringing income and jobs into the region. The PSEF model uses linked equations to forecast 103 variables, with the equations estimated using with quarterly data from 1970 to 2005.

The regional forecasts produced by the PSEF model serve as the regional control totals for all of the Regional Council’s models by feeding into the land use forecast model (currently UrbanSim) and indirectly then all models that rely on the forecasts of population, households and employment.