Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Why Buddhist Economics?’ , in Ethical Principles and Economic Transformation: A Buddhist Approach, ed. Laszlo Zsolnai, Spinger, 2011. (This book may be available at: Springer)
Buddhism and economics are seem to be far from one another. Many people think that Buddhism is an ascetic religion with no interest in worldly affairs. It is not true. Buddhism has a well developed social facet. Buddhists are often engaged in progressive social change. Buddhism poses a radical challenge for mainstream economics because denies the existence of the self. The Western way of life is centered on self-interest understood as satisfaction of the wishes of one’s body-mind ego. Buddhism challenges this view by a radically different conception, that is “anatta”, the “no-self”.