Do Exchange Rate and Its Volatility Deter Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India?

This paper investigates the impact of exchange rate levels and its volatility on Foreign Direct Investment in India using quarterly data for the period 1996:2 to 2010:1. The study employed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to examine the long-run and short-run relationship. Both conditional variance and other measures of volatility have been used to generate exchange rate volatility. The study also considered factors that motivate the foreign investors’ decision to invest in India. The results indicated that exchange rate volatility deters FDI in India, suggesting that flexible but stable exchange rate system may be needed to successfully attract FDI inflows in India