Abstract

The objective of this study is to empirically analyze the discourse on correlation between exchange rate and country’s export competitiveness, which is one of the dominant discourses having been continuously and extensively reproduced in the Thai society by the authorities from academia, the public and private sectors. The study analyzes the time-series data of the exchange rate, overall exports, exports of agricultural products, and exports of industrial products by employing advanced statistical analysis, regression, and the Johansen Cointegration Test. Through regression, we find that exchange rate is negatively related to overall exports, exports of agricultural products and exports of industrial products. On the contrary, Johansen Cointegration Test does not demonstrate any long-term relationship between exchange rate and the three variables of export. Thus, the claim that the appreciation of domestic currency will negatively affect the country’s export competitiveness, whether in overall, agricultural products or industrial products, is not a defect in good faith but another example of the dominance of oriented discourse, which gives way for the elite to take advantage as a camouflage in the form of knowledge and truth, while others in the society never suspect nor argue about it.

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