Examining the Role of Policy and Cultural Determinants on Sectoral Export Competitiveness: Evidences from India

Exports are affected by several economic, political, social and cultural determinants. The objective of this study is to examine the role of policy and cultural determinants on export competitiveness for different sectors, estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and suggest focus areas to improve exports. The study uses the method of stochastic frontier analysis on the bilateral trade of India over the period 2000-2016. The result findings highlight that there is underutilization and ambiguous effect of trade agreements for all sectors except intermediate goods (IGs). Foreign direct investments outflow has positive results for all the sectors with capital goods getting benefitted the most. TE of exports shows positive trends for IGs, negative trend for raw materials, and mixed trend for consumer goods and capital goods sectors. IGs show the best export competitiveness, whereas RMs have the highest export potential. The results underline India's progress in integrating with the global supply chain through increasing TE in exports of IGs.