Author Description

This book entitled 2017 Annual Competitiveness Analysis and Impact of Exchange Rates on Foreign Direct Investment Inflows to Sub-National Economies of India is the fifth edition of the Asia Competitiveness Institute's flagship analysis of competitiveness covering the sub-national economies of India. The research in this study comes from an effort to recognise the heterogeneity of India and how the variations in the dynamics of competitiveness pan out at the sub-national level. Based on rigorous methodological foundations, the competitiveness study possesses several distinguishing features. First, the competitiveness index is constructed from a holistic set of 75 indicators spanning four different dimensions encompassing (1) macroeconomic stability, (2) government and institutional setting, (3) financial, business and manpower conditions, and (4) quality of life and infrastructure development, which carry equal weights. Second, the Shapley Values approach is used to construct alternative weights for the competitiveness index. Such approach measures the marginal contribution of a particular indicator used in the analysis and is embedded in solid mathematical and theoretical foundations. This serves as a robustness check to the Equal Weights approach. Third, the analysis includes a What-if competitiveness simulation exercise to identify the specific policy areas that each sub-national economy must focus on to improve its rankings. Intrinsically tied to the notion of competitiveness is the issue of maintaining a competitive exchange rate. Using real effective exchange rates as a proxy for competitiveness, this book also undertakes an empirical investigation of the impact of real exchange rates on foreign direct investment inflows at the sub-national level in India. This edition is recommended for academics, undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals interested in India's economic development.