Doctor of Economic Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University

On July 21st, 2025, Ștefana Cioban (married Belbe), doctoral candidate at the Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration (FSEGA), Babeș-Bolyai University (BBU), successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Econometric Tools for Space-Time Predictive Analysis”. Her research falls within the domain of Cybernetics and Statistics, and was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Codruța Mare, with guidance from the supervisory committee: Assoc. Prof. Liana Stanca, Assoc. Prof. Titus Man, and Prof. Cristian Dragoș.

The thesis presents a rigorous investigation into the state-of-the-art spatial and space-time econometric techniques, offering both methodological innovation and empirical applications to better understand dynamic socio-economic phenomena—such as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the interplay between economic wealth and health expenditures across EU countries.

The public defense was chaired by Prof. Gheorghe Silaghi, and the selection committee—comprising Prof. Anil Bera, Prof. Zizi Goschin, and Prof. Cristian Marius Litan—awarded Ștefana the title of Doctor of Economic Sciences.