Education
Bocconi University, Milan (August 2020 - Present)
Masters in Economics and Social Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (August 2013 - May 2017)
Bachelors of Science in Economics
Tepper College Honors
Research Experience
Bocconi University, Milano (ITA) (October 2021 - December 2021)
Research Assistant
- Building automated software mounted on AWS to provide intervention in RCT immediately as treatment is assigned.
Yale University, New Haven CT (September 2019 - August 2020)
Research Associate
Examined and helped create recommendations for government-sponsored catastrophe insurance.
Wrote intensive histories of housing aid and municipal liquidity during historical financial crises.
Examined effects of broad-based capital injections employed during the Japanese Financial Crisis.
Federal Reserve Board, Washington DC (October 2017 - August 2019)
Research Assistant
Wrote code for various research outputs, including automated Bloomberg pulls and tree generation from relational datasets
Programmed a securities lending monitoring system outputting charts through a SLURM-scheduled task.
Wrote and distributed a daily newsletter on financial stability, circulated to Board Staff.
Teaching Experience
FedEd (Sporadic)
- Educated local high schoolers in the functions of the Federal Reserve
Teaching Assistant, Principles of Economics (73-100) (January 2017 - May 2017)
Led weekly recitations for two recitation sections in Carnegie Mellon's intro economics course
Held weekly office hours
Course Teacher, Financial Freedom (99-272) (January 2015 - May 2015)
Co-created and co-taught credit-bearing course in financial literacy for 50 students
Wrote and graded exams; assessed final projects
Provided weekly meeting and mentoring through financial decision-making and planning
Mentor, MoneyThink (September 2013 - May 2014)
Taught financial literacy curriculum to students with learning disabilities in inner-city Pittsburgh
Regularly modified and specialized curriculum to fit student needs and pace
Publications
Unnava, V., & Smith, A. (2021). Indonesia Joint Recapitalization of 1999. The Journal of Financial Crises, 3(3), 169-193.
Unnava, V. (2021). Prompt Recapitalization Act. The Journal of Financial Crises, 3(3), 254-284.
Unnava, V. (2021). Financial Functions Stabilization Act. The Journal of Financial Crises, 3(3), 285-314.
Unnava, V., & Oguri, J. (2021). Japan’s Act on Strengthening Financial Functions (ASFF). The Journal of Financial Crises, 3(3), 315-350.
Blog Posts
- Understanding Parametric Triggers in Catastrophe Insurance
- Barriers to Access Impede Utilization of Municipal Liquidity Facility
- Residential Mortgage and Rent Relief During Crises
- Mortgage Forbearance and Housing Expense Relief in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak
- Expanding Debt Restructuring Options for Mortgage Lenders in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak
- CARES Act Provides Mortgage Forbearance
- European Stability Mechanism Establishes Pandemic Support Credit Lines
- Federal Reserve Announces New Municipal Liquidity Facility
- Aid to Airlines and other Critical Industries During Crises
- US Provides Aid to Airlines in Historic Relief Bill -More Aid Offered To Airlines as Pandemic Continues to Depress Demand
Research Projects
Wage Inequality and Hate Speech (January 2021 - September 2021)
Research In Color Foundation, Mentee
Selected as a promising emerging researcher of color to pursue an independent research project.
Investigating potential links between online hate speech and inequality under the guidance of Dr. Mina Kim (BLS).
Regularly attend workshops by JPAL and Berkeley Faculty.
One of ten mentees to present research at symposium.
Radicalization in Online Communities (Ongoing/On Hold)
Utilizes novel dataset to run sentiment analysis on community level lexicons.
Develops hate-speech lexicons through machine learning and natural language processing.
Maps sentiment dictionaries to create a ordinal distribution of slang online in various communities.
Senior Honors Thesis (September 2016 - May 2017)
Quantitative Social Science Scholars
Proposed potential Asian currency anchors for developing economies.
Investigates the effects of currency unions on FDI.
Examined homogeneity of economies within existing currency unions.
Determined that countries may benefit from leaving the EU and anchoring to Asian currencies.
Resident Assistant Selection (April 2016)
Implemented auction theory, recognizing mass-market hiring problem as auction problem rather than matching problem.
Reduced selection time by 75%.
Campus Engagement Subsidy (September 2016 - May 2017)
Student Body President
Utilized economic theory to create budgetary subsidy system, increasing civic engagement in campus clubs.
Increased campus engagement by 20 clubs of 50 students each.
Awards and Honors
Rotary Global Grant Scholarship (Rotary Clubs of New Haven and Milan)
Omicron Delta Epsilon Economics Honors Society
Award for Advancement of Women in Academics at Tepper College of Business
Award for Distinguished Service to Economics Program
Related Skills
Programming: R, Python, Stata, SAS, SQL (Advanced), VBA, SPSS, MATLAB (intermediate), HTML, CSS, Java (beginner)
Software: Git, Bloomberg, WRDS, SNL, Palantir, LaTeX
Languages: English (native), Telugu (native), Japanese (conversational), Italian (intermediate)
Leadership
President, World@Bocconi (Bocconi International Students' Association)
Class Representative, Bocconi University
Student Body President, Carnegie Mellon University
ICCA Set Arranger, Counterpoint Acapella, Carnegie Mellon University
Community Advisor, Carnegie Mellon University
Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Prevention Committee Chair, Carnegie Mellon University
Resident Assistant, Carnegie Mellon University
First Lectures Founder, Carnegie Mellon University