Do Effective State Business Relations Matter for Economic Growth? Evidence from Indian States

Effective state-business relations are a set of highly institutionalised, responsive and public interactions between the state and the business sector. This paper examines the impact of effective state-business relations on economic growth across Indian states over the period 1985-2006. We propose a measure that captures the various dimensions of effective state-business relations at the sub-national level, and estimate standard growth regressions using dynamic panel data methods. Our results show that effective state-business relations contribute significantly to economic growth and appear to be driven by the intensity of the interactions between the state and the private sector. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.