Why can two intelligent people receive exactly the same information and come away believing completely different things?

Irina Luneva is a Professor of Accounting at NYU Stern whose research explores how information shapes financial markets, corporate decisions and investor beliefs.

In this conversation, we explore why more information does not always lead to more agreement, whether markets really discover the truth, how investors interpret the same facts differently, and what corporate disclosure can teach us about human decision-making.

We also discuss the relationship between companies and their lenders, why financial contracts are renegotiated, how banks and bondholders respond to ESG performance, and whether greater corporate transparency is always beneficial.

Beyond finance, Irina and I discuss uncertainty, intellectual humility, how great researchers think, and what studying markets can teach us about making better decisions in everyday life.

Irina joined NYU Stern in 2024 after completing her PhD in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Before academia, she worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Russia.

Topics include:
• Why intelligent people disagree despite seeing the same facts
• Can more information actually make disagreement worse?
• Do financial markets reveal the truth?
• How investors process uncertainty
• Corporate disclosure and transparency
• Debt contracts and lender-borrower relationships
• ESG and the cost of capital
• Banks vs. bondholders
• How great researchers choose problems
• Making better decisions under uncertainty

Follow the Omelas Podcast for long-form conversations with leading thinkers across business, finance, academia, politics and public life.

Hosted by Aryaman Varma.