Lehigh University

About: Lehigh University is a education organization based out in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Fracture mechanics. The organization has 12684 authors who have published 26550 publications receiving 770061 citations.

Commonality in Liquidity: A Global Perspective

Abstract: We conduct the first comprehensive study of commonality in liquidity using intraday spread and depth data from 47 stock exchanges. We show that commonality is a widespread, global phenomenon. Firm-level changes in spreads and depths are significantly influenced by exchange-wide changes in liquidity on the majority of the world’s stock exchanges. Emerging Asian exchanges have exceptionally strong commonality, while those of Latin America exhibit little if any commonality. In contrast to previous NYSE-based results, we find that commonality in bid-ask spreads is most prevalent among small firms while commonality in depths increases monotonically with firm size. After documenting the pervasive role of commonality within individual exchanges, we examine commonality across exchanges. We extend the empirical model of Chordia, Roll, and Subrahmanyam (2000) and find the first empirical evidence of a distinct, global component in bid-ask spreads and depths. Changes in global spreads and depths have a significant effect on changes in liquidity at the exchange level. We show that while exchange size (total market capitalization) plays an influential role in the liquidity transmission process, global commonality is not driven by a subset of large exchanges.

Does the Provision of Nonaudit Services Affect Investor Perceptions of Auditor Independence

Abstract: A number of recent studies examine whether the joint provision of audit and nonaudit services (NAS) impairs auditor independence, and yield mixed results. We examine whether investors perceive auditor independence as being impaired when auditors supply nonaudit services, by investigating the association between fee‐based measures of nonaudit service purchases and the earnings response coefficient (ERC). We find that the nonaudit fee ratio and the level of nonaudit fees were negatively associated with ERCs in 2001. When we use unexpected fees (a measure of over‐ or underpayment of nonaudit fees), we find a negative association between NAS purchases and ERC, but this occurs mainly in the second and third quarters following the release of the proxy. Further investigation reveals that the quarterly differences may be driven by the increasing flow of information (i.e., the first‐time disclosures of fees and media analyses of these disclosures) that became available to investors during our sample period. We spe...

Holocene carbon flux histories of the world’s peatlands: Global carbon-cycle implications

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel approach using basal peat ages and carbon (C) accumulation profiles from the world’s major peatland regions to decompose C flux terms from time-dependent C pool data observed from peat cores. Our peat-data syntheses show that the total peat C pools are 547 GtC, 50 GtC, and 15 GtC for northern, tropical and southern peatlands, respectively. The modeled net C balance (NCB) has a mean value of 41.8 TgC/yr for northern peatlands during the Holocene, ranging from 83.1 TgC/yr in the early Holocene around 9 ka (1 ka = 1000 cal. yr BP) to 21.5 TgC/yr around 2 ka, a temporal pattern mostly owing to the delayed effect of long-term decay of previously accumulated peat C. NCB from tropical and southern peatlands represents much smaller terms, mostly less than 10 TgC/yr. Northern peatlands represent about 90% of global total peatland C pool of 612 GtC and >90% of global peatland NCB. Our bottom-up global peatland synthesis indicates a decrease in rates of peatland area expansion and reduced...

Biologically inspired crack trapping for enhanced adhesion

Abstract: We present a synthetic adaptation of the fibrillar adhesion surfaces found in nature. The structure consists of protruding fibrils topped by a thin plate and shows an experimentally measured enhancement in adhesion energy of up to a factor of 9 over a flat control. Additionally, this structure solves the robustness problems of previous mimic structures and has preferred contact properties (i.e., a large surface area and a highly compliant structure). We show that this geometry enhances adhesion because of its ability to trap interfacial cracks in highly compliant contact regimes between successive fibril detachments. This results in the requirement that the externally supplied energy release rate for interfacial separation be greater than the intrinsic work of adhesion, in a manner analogous to lattice trapping of cracks in crystalline solids.