On the afternoon of May 30, 2025, at Room 501, Building A2, the National Economics University held the doctoral dissertation defense for Ph.D. candidate Dang Trung Chinh, majoring in Economics (E-PhD Program), with the dissertation titled "Spatio-temporal dependence of corruption in Vietnam.".
The doctoral dissertation was supervised by Associate Professor Dr. Le Quang Canh from the National Economics University.
The ceremony was attended by members of the Defense Committee, including representatives from the National Economics University: Associate Professor Dr. Ho Dinh Bao – Committee Chair, Professor Dr. To Trung Thanh, and Associate Professor Dr. Bach Ngoc Thang; external members included: Dr. Dang Duc Anh from the Central Institute for Economic Management Research, and Dr. Nguyen Thanh Cong from Phenikaa University.
Additionally, the ceremony was attended by the supervising faculty member, colleagues from the candidate's workplace, friends, and family members of the PhD candidate.
Under the chairmanship of Associate Professor Dr. Ho Dinh Bao, the Committee reviewed the candidate's academic background, research achievements, academic progress, and scientific research results throughout the dissertation process. The Committee members highly praised the candidate's academic performance, research contributions, and dedicated efforts during this period.
Subsequently, Ph.D. candidate Dang Trung Chinh presented his research findings to the Committee.
In his doctoral dissertation, candidate Dang Trung Chinh conducted research on "Spatio-temporal dependence of corruption in Vietnam." This research makes a significant theoretical contribution: The Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model and Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression demonstrate their effectiveness in analyzing factors influencing corruption in Vietnam. This proves the existence of spatio-temporal dependence of corruption among provinces in Vietnam, including spatio-temporal autocorrelation and spatio-temporal heterogeneity effects. The dissertation findings align with core principles of ecological complexity theory.
Additionally, the dissertation offers several practical contributions. First, the independence variable or heterogeneity of corruption in Vietnam is significantly related to various predictive factors at (1) individual, institutional, and social levels; and (2) social interactions, economic development, and political institutions/government policy types. Second, corruption in Vietnam demonstrates persistence and diffusion across time and space. Third, the dissertation results emphasize the surprising and evolving nature of corruption, thereby lending credibility to alternative theories of ecological complexity. In the spatio-temporal autocorrelation results, indirect effects exceed direct effects. On this point, only two significant corruption drivers (namely net migration and provincial leadership initiative) maintain consistent positive or negative associations throughout the 2006-2020 period. Furthermore, in the spatio-temporal heterogeneity results, the direction of association for other drivers changed once (immigration), twice (transparency and labor), or three times (freight transport, provincial GRDP, openness, and provincial budget expenditure).
The dissertation's key findings have been published in international scientific journals indexed in ISI/Scopus databases.
According to the Committee members' evaluation, the dissertation reflects Ph.D. candidate Dang Trung Chinh's serious academic and research process. The research findings demonstrate high scientific value and practical applicability.
Following deliberation, the Dissertation Committee conducted a closed session, with 5 out of 6 present members voting in favor. Associate Professor Dr. Ho Dinh Bao, on behalf of the Committee, congratulated Ph.D. candidate Dang Trung Chinh on his successful dissertation defense.
Congratulations to Dr. Dang Trung Chinh!
Some images from the ceremony:
Article and photos: Institute for Sustainable Development
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