BUDDHIST ECONOMICS
1. DEFINITIONS OF ECONOMICS:
The subject of economics, as it is understood today is complexity, defies any attempt at
giving a precise, adequate definition. Originally, economics simply meant the management of
household resources. The earliest of the modern definitions were usually in terms of wealth.
For example, Adam Smith called his famous work "An inquiry into the nature and causes of
wealth of nation." J.S.Mill considered economics as the "practical science of production and
distribution of wealth." Nowadays definitions lay more emphasis on the problems of
exchange and price determination. Some even define it in terms of welfare, thus representing
economics as a means of studying how through increased production the standard of living of
people could be improved. Alfred Marshall sees it not only as a study of wealth but also as a
study of man. Some of the latest definitions are based on the theory of scarcity and choice,
which gives economics yet another dimension.1
What becomes more clear from above mentioned numerous definitions, is that economics is a
complex, yet composite subject, to a large extent concerned with activities and to a lesser
extent with motives of man adopted by him in the process of securing all kinds of things with
which he aims to satisfy his various wants. These definitions make it clear that economics
also explains the causes upon which the material well-being of humankind depends, the
causes that influence and control the production of goods and their distribution, etc.2
Economics is the basis of our daily lives, even if we do not always realize it. Where it is an
explanation of how people work hard, or people vote, or customers buy, or movements
subsidize, economists have examined evidence and produced theories that can be checked
against practice.3
Furthermore, economics is the study of the production distribution, selling and use of goods
and services. Moreover, it is the study of financial structures to show how a product or
service is cost and what returns it produces.
