Before moving into Buddhist studies, Rhys Davids made a contribution to Economics. She wrote seventeen entries for "Palgrave Dictionary of Political Economy" (1894-99/1910), including "Rent of ability," "Science, Economic, as distinguished from art," "Statics, Social, and social dynamics," as well as twelve biographical entries. Her entry, "Fashion, economic influence of," was related to her 1893 "Economic Journal" article, "Fashion," and reflects an unusual economic interest (see Fullbrook 1998). She also translated articles for the "Economic journal" from the German, French and Italian, including Carl Menger's influential 1892 article "On the Origin of Money". In 1896 Rhys Davids published two sets of lecture notes by her former teacher and mentor George Croom Robertson: one on psychology and one on philosophy. Rhys Davids was on the editorial board of the "Economic Journal" from 1891 to 1895.