Vimal Kumar

Vimal Kumar serves as a Professor in the Department of Economic Sciences within the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His academic journey reflects an impressive interdisciplinary trajectory from engineering to political economics, having earned dual degrees in Mechanical Engineering (B.Tech and M.Tech) from IIT Bombay before completing his PhD in Economics at the University of California Irvine in 2008.

His educational background includes a Social Science Merit Fellowship at UC Irvine (2003-2008) providing $40,000 annually. His research focuses on Political Economics and Game Theory, with particular expertise in presidential power dynamics, political polarization, and institutional economic analysis. His publications demonstrate a consistent approach of applying rigorous economic modeling to understand political behavior and strategic interactions within governmental institutions.

Dr. Kumar's scholarly output reveals a clear thematic progression in American political institutions, with his most cited work examining organized crime economics. His research has attracted significant external funding through projects including the 'Obama-Singh Knowledge Partnership initiative' where he served as Co-Principal Investigator for a study on development planning near growth centers, and a HUDCO-sponsored project on urban housing markets.

His research excellence has been recognized through multiple awards including the Founders Award (2011) for Best Paper at the American Political Science Association conference. Additionally, he has received formal recognition from IIT Kanpur's Academic Senate for exceptional teaching performance in both advanced (ECO 408) and foundational (ECO 201) economics courses, demonstrating his dual commitment to research and pedagogy.