Zesht
The Zesht framework
Seven ideas Zesht uses to examine economic and policy questions — and the box that appears in every explainer.
Intentions are not outcomes. Zesht doesn’t grade intentions. It examines results.
Zesht approaches economic and policy questions through a few recurring ideas. None of them is partisan. Each can cut in either direction, and each is a question to test rather than a conclusion to assume.
1. People respond to incentives
If you change the cost or reward attached to an action, people change their behavior. Sometimes that’s the whole point of the policy. Sometimes it’s the unintended consequence. We look for both. Articles on incentives →
2. Prices contain information
A high price can be painful without being meaningless. Sometimes it tells us something has become scarce, risky or expensive to produce. Suppressing the price doesn’t necessarily eliminate the scarcity. It can hide it. Articles on prices →
3. Every subsidy has an incidence
Someone receives the benefit. Someone finances it. And sometimes part of the subsidy ends up captured by a producer through higher prices instead of remaining with the intended recipient. We follow the money. Articles on subsidies →
4. Supply matters
Giving people more money to purchase something does not automatically create more of it. If supply remains constrained, additional purchasing power may primarily increase price. Housing and education are obvious places to investigate this. Articles on supply → · Try the ten-houses simulator
5. Local knowledge matters
Parents know things about their children that a state capital doesn’t. Homeowners know things about their neighborhoods that a statewide formula doesn’t. Prices contain information that regulators may not possess. Centralization can produce scale. It can also distance decisions from the people affected by them. We examine both. Articles on local knowledge →
6. Competition is information
People leaving a store, school district, insurer, city or product is itself information. Choice creates feedback. Systems that prevent exit can also suppress that feedback. Articles on competition →
7. Intentions are not outcomes
A policy can be well intentioned and still produce bad incentives. A policy can also impose real costs while solving a genuine problem. Articles on outcomes →
The anatomy of a Zesht explainer
Every policy article distinguishes:
| Section | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| The goal | What is the policy trying to achieve? |
| The mechanism | How is it supposed to work? |
| The incentive | What does it actually reward or penalize? |
| The observed result | What happened? |
| The unintended consequences | What happened that nobody intended? |
| What supporters say | The strongest case for the policy. |
| What critics say | The strongest case against it. |
| What the evidence shows | What the best available data actually support. |
| What remains uncertain | What we don’t know yet, and what would change our mind. |
The recurring Zesht box: Follow the incentive
Most explainers end with the same seven questions. They work on almost any rule, price or program — try them on the next policy announcement you read:
- What behavior does this reward?
- What does it discourage?
- What becomes more expensive?
- What becomes scarcer?
- Who receives the benefit?
- Who ultimately pays?
- What happens when people have another option?
The operating principle is simple: follow the incentive, follow the money, follow the result. And when the evidence contradicts the theory, change the theory.