About the Project

MUSET-TE is a young independent teams research project dedicated to Modelling Uncertainty and Spatial Effects in Time. We forecast to reduce uncertainty. But, in the same time, we have a share of uncertainty when we address different aspects, and there are individual, time and spatial processes that condition this. The main goal of the present research proposal is to address uncertainty in the presence of spatial effects and see how they evolve in time. For this, we have two main research directions. The first one is assessing uncertainty in survey data based on ordinal responses. The main novelty of this research is that it takes the famous CUB model family and adds the longitudinal dimension by developing a new methodology to evaluate how uncertainty and feeling vary in time and within the sample. This new method is named CUBT (CUB in Time). In this way, the impact of latent variables like feeling and uncertainty will also be able to be modeled in datasets like repeated measurements or panel data. The new CUBT is developed and, after validation, implemented at least in R. After the new method construction, spatial effects are introduced to see how feeling and uncertainty vary not only in time, but also in space. This is the second research direction of this proposal. As a first step, a new dataset is constructed based on repeated measurements survey data collected in space. The new CUBT model will be used to address it. On the other hand, spatiotemporal effects will be evaluated in uncertain and volatile fields like cryptocurrencies. The newly developed Spatial ARCH model will be employed.

Main Goals of the Project

Team Members

Codruța Mare

Codruța Mare

Codruța is Prof. of Statistics and Econometrics at the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She has been involved in several national and international projects, including MSCA projects or COST Actions. Her interests are related to Statistics, Econometrics and Spatial Econometrics applied for daily life, along with forecasting techniques.

Gabriela-Mihaela Mureșan

Gabriela-Mihaela Mureșan

Gabriela holds a PhD in Finance and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University. Her research interests span the fields of behavioral finance, economic psychology, insurance, and financial analysis.

Ioana Natalia Beleiu

Ioana Natalia Beleiu

Ioana is a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She received the PhD degree in management from the Babeș-Bolyai University in 2012, and obtained the habilitation in 2022 at the University of Economics in Bucharest, Romania. Her research interests relate to project management, governance, entrepreneurship. She took part of our MUSET-TE project team during the first year of implementation.

Mihai-Adrian Achim

Mihai-Adrian Achim

Mihai graduated on 2023 the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, specialization Statistics and Economic Forecasting. His bachelor thesis was on determinants of shadow economy. in 2025, he graduated the Masters on Statistics, and currently he is a PhD student within the same Faculty.

Ștefana Belbe

Ștefana Belbe

Ștefana holds a PhD in Space-Time Predictive Econometrics and works as a Research Assistant in the Department of Mathematics-Forecasts Satistics in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Babeș-Bolyai University. She teaches at Bachelor and Master levels and works as a Senior Data Science Consultant at Endava, with expertise in NLP, LLMs, (web)GIS, geospatial analysis, predictive modeling, spatial statistics, and econometrics using ML and GenAI.

Executive summaries

Project Executive Summaries

Executive Summary – 2025 (EN)

Executive Summary of the MUSET-TE project for 2025.

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Executive Summary – 2025 (RO)

Sumar Executiv al proiectului MUSET-TE pentru anul 2025.

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Deliverables

Conference Participations

Xu, Y., Mare, C., Jiang, W., Zhang, D. (November 27-29, 2025). High Dimensional Threshold Spatial Autoregressive Models: Estimation and Variable Selection. 9th CERS - Central European Conference in Regional Science. Sustainability-driven territorial development. Challenges for CEECs, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://cers.rrsa.ro
Raddi, F., Mare, C. (November 27-29, 2025). A spectral guide to the spatial weight matrix selection. 9th CERS - Central European Conference in Regional Science. Sustainability-driven territorial development. Challenges for CEECs, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://cers.rrsa.ro
Achim, M.-A., Belbe, Ș., Beleiu, I.N., Otto, P., Mare, C. (November 27-29, 2025). Spatial Effects and Uncertainty in Cryptocurrencies – the case of Space-Time ARCH Models. 9th CERS - Central European Conference in Regional Science. Sustainability-driven territorial development. Challenges for CEECs, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://cers.rrsa.ro
Achim, M.-A., Mare, C., Beleiu, I.N., Belbe, Ș. (November 21-22, 2025). Trends and Insights in CUB Model Research: A Bibliometric Study Based on WoS. The 18th International Conference on Applied Statistics, Predeal, Romania. https://simpstat.ase.ro
Purcel, A., Mureșan, G. (November 14-15, 2025). Developmental trade-offs and the pursuit of happiness: income, emissions, and financial connectivity. Cluj Economics and Business Conference, Global economy under the auspices of the sustainable development, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://econ.ubbcluj.ro/cebc/programme.php
Belbe, Ș., Gere, I., Mare, C. (November 4-7, 2025). Does Spatial Clustering and Dispersion persist? Smart Diaspora 2025, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://diaspora-stiintifica.ro/
Mare, C., Tarantola, C., Facchinetti, S., Iannario, M., Mazzali, A., Merli, L., Osmetti, S., Spelta, A. (November 4-7, 2025). Network Analysis and Uncertainty in Finance: A Statistical Perspective from Our Research on a Cyber Risk Case Study. Smart Diaspora 2025, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. https://diaspora-stiintifica.ro/
Mureșan, G., Mare, C. (October 8-11, 2025). A systematic literature review on uncertainty and risk in Finance: theoretical foundations and empirical trends. Kautz Conference on Business and Economics, Győr, Hungary. https://kautzconference.sze.hu
Mureșan, G., Sabadâș, G. (May 9-10, 2025). Literature Review of Uncertainty Risk in Finance. International Yildirim Bayezid Scientific Research and Innovation Symposium-I, Bursa, Türkiye. https://www.iksadkongre.com/bursa
Belbe, Ș., Gere, I., Mare, C. (May 2-6, 2025). The Impact of Spatial Aggregation upon unveiling Hidden Spatial Autocorrelation. The 19th World Conference of the Spatial Econometrics Association & The Spatial Econometrics Advanced Institute, Rabat, Morocco. https://sites.google.com/site/jefconference/
Lazăr, I., Danci, A., Mureșan, G. (March 20-21, 2025). Is time for a financial EKG - behavior and performance under conditions of uncertainty. Conferința Europeană a Serviciilor Financiare ECFS 2025, Brașov, Romania. https://www.isfin.ro
Lazăr, I., Danci, A., Mureșan, G. (March 15-16, 2025). The Financial EKG of an Entity. Behavior and Performance under Conditions of Uncertainty. IBANESS Congresses Series on Economics, Business and Management, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. https://www.ibaness.org/index.php
Lazăr, I., Danci, A., Mureșan, G. (March 15-16, 2025). The Relationship Between Financial Manipulation and The Bankruptcy Risk of a Company. IBANESS Congresses Series on Economics, Business and Management, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. https://www.ibaness.org/index.php
Mureșan, G., Colța, A., Sabadâș, G. (March 15-16, 2025). Literature Review of Uncertainty Risk in Finance. IBANESS Congresses Series on Economics, Business and Management, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. https://www.ibaness.org/index.php
Lazăr, I., Danci, A., Mureșan, G. (February 5-9, 2025). The Financial EKG of an Entity. Behavior and Performance under Conditions of Uncertainty. 11th International Paris Congress on Social Sciences & Humanities, Paris, France. https://www.iksadparis.org/social
Lazăr, I., Danci, A., Mureșan, G. (February 5-9, 2025). The Relationship Between Financial Manipulation and The Bankruptcy Risk of a Company. 11th International Paris Congress on Social Sciences Humanities, Paris, France. https://www.iksadparis.org/social
Mureșan, G. M., Colța, A. (February 5-9, 2025). A Bibliometric Analysis Of Uncertainty Risk In Finance. 11th International Paris Congress on Social Sciences Humanities, Paris, France. https://www.iksadparis.org/social

Published Articles

Achim, M. A.,Mare, C. (2025). Factors influencing the shadow economy: an international analysis. DJournal of Risk Finance, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRF-02-2025-0075
Danci, A. R., Lazăr, I. A., Mureșan, G. M. (2025). Financial analysis in the era of uncertainty: a comprehensive examination. Digital Finance, 1–25. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42521-025-00136-5

GitHub Projects

Podcasts

Exploration of CUB Tools

Exploration of the CUB Models for modelling uncertainty and their relevance to the MUSET-TE project.

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Stop Misleading Data

How CUB Models untangle preference from uncertainty in rating scales.

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