Vikash Kumar
PhD Candidate, Operations Management
Ivey Business School · Western University
Vikash Kumar is a PhD Candidate in Operations Management at the Ivey Business School, Western University. His research in sustainable operations asks a central question: given a policy framework intended to accelerate the green transition, how do firms actually respond, how do myopic consumers actually choose, and what does this mean for the environmental and social outcomes policymakers care about? His current projects span electric vehicle adoption, circular battery supply chains, and fleet electrification in public food distribution, combining analytical modelling and empirical methods. His work identifies mechanism designs that close the gap between policy intent and realised outcomes. His research is supervised by Gal Raz and Deishin Lee.
Before the PhD, he spent seven years at the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), managing $2.5M EPC projects and leading digital transformation initiatives. He holds an MBA from IE Business School (top 10%, Beta Gamma Sigma) and a B.Tech from IIT (BHU) Varanasi.
News
Working Papers
India's Food Corporation moves grain to 800 million beneficiaries on a diesel fleet now targeted for electrification. We model the three-tier Public Distribution System and compare carbon-credit incentives against binding electrification mandates, asking when fleet decarbonisation improves — and when it erodes — food security in developing economies.
Range anxiety and sparse charging infrastructure remain the two largest barriers to EV adoption. We develop a model of consumer choice between range and charging access and complement it with a behavioral experiment, with implications for product design and infrastructure policy.
We compare product-based (flat per-vehicle) and attribute-based (range-linked) EV subsidies and show that while attribute-based designs accelerate adoption, uncapped versions can erode welfare and environmental outcomes. We characterise conditions under which a cap on the range-linked subsidy is welfare-improving.
We study how Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandates shape battery manufacturers' choices between recycling and second-life repurposing. We show that under certain conditions, well-intentioned EPR policies can produce worse environmental outcomes than no policy at all, with implications for circular-economy regulation design.
Works in Progress
A behavioral experiment investigating how consumers trade off vehicle range, price, and charging access — with implications for incentive design and EV product strategy.
Curriculum Vitae
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Contact
I welcome conversations about sustainable operations, the green transition, and mechanism design.
The best way to reach me is by email.