IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijgrec/v1y2007i3-4p326-340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Buddhist economics – ancient teachings revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Hans-Guenter Wagner

Abstract

The views and values of Buddhist economics play a growing role in the present discourse on 'green' economics. These ancient teachings represent an alternative paradigm and holistic concept of economic action opposed to the reductionist mainstream economics. In this paper, the main content and assumptions of Buddhist economics as laid down in the canonical scriptures are introduced and contrasted with those of western economics. The Buddhist concept of happiness, and of economic action in general, the recommendations on right livelihood as well as the corresponding notions about the source of wealth, its proper use and distribution are reviewed and discussed. It is shown that these ancient teachings share many common facets with the ecological movement and its approach to economics. Particular attention is given to review the actual impact of Buddhist economic ethics on the social and economic history of Asian Buddhist countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans-Guenter Wagner, 2007. "Buddhist economics – ancient teachings revisited," International Journal of Green Economics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(3/4), pages 326-340.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijgrec:v:1:y:2007:i:3/4:p:326-340
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=13063
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijgrec:v:1:y:2007:i:3/4:p:326-340. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=158 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.