We use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate determinants of stockpiling behavior during the COVID-19 lockdown. We analyzed 518 responses to an online survey and used Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM) techniques to estimate relationships between variables. Negative attitude (perceived barriers) and others’ behavior (descriptive social norms) were revealed as significant predictors for both intention to over-purchase and the actual stockpiling behavior. The lack of significance obtained for perceived behavioral control (PBC) is also an important result, strengthening the evidence that factors’ contribution to TPB’s predictive power is strongly context-dependent, respectively that PBC is less relevant in settings dominated by uncertainty. The lack of significance is especially compelling when stockpiling behavior is regarded as deviant conduct from effective consumption. Our findings expand the understanding on the applicability of TPB and offer informed practical suggestions for improving managerial strategies, public and private ones, during extreme events when self-regulation and cognitive control are expedient but hard to achieve.

With knowledge being at the center of societal development, global policy forums, such as OECD, promote policies to improve national education systems. According to the most recent PISA evaluation, 40% of Romanian 15-year students are considered functionally illiterate. The Romanian education system’s mission to catch up with international standards was challenged by the policy shocks following the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to adapt to the new situation, the Minister of Education implemented a substantial reduction of the curricula covered by the National Evaluation exam held in 2020. In 2021, the exam was restructured so to resemble the PISA tests. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these changes have impacted the Romanian upper education system. We used the 2019-2021 high school admission data published by the Ministry of Education. Our results indicate apparent progress of high school efficacy due to the inflationary grade effects. We provided an alternative metric based not on grades but high school candidates’ rank. The classification of high schools based on this instrument is revealed as more robust. Most high schools in Bucharest run in the lowest performance category with the upper education system relying on a few top-performing high schools. For administrators and policymakers, this type of instrument is crucial for a proper evaluation of educational institution efficacy and authentic progress. This type of evaluation is the first action in the process to meet OECD requirements to close the gap between the lowest and highest education institutions in the EECA region.

Since 2021, the National Evaluation exam in Romania (the exam aimed to assess 14- to 15-year-old students’ knowledge at the end of lower secondary education and just before high school) has presented a novel examination structure that resembles PISA tests. The current investigation analyses the 2021 National Evaluation exam results compared to the results obtained in the previous two years (2019–2020) as an evaluation of upper education institutions’ effectiveness in Romania. The results put forward the same conclusions as proposed by extant literature on Bucharest high schools. Even though the educational institutions show apparent progress and great adaptability to change, a more in-depth analysis reveals great inequality between educational institutions. As in the case of Bucharest, nationally there are only a small number of top-performing high schools in Romania, with the majority of high schools ranking in the lowest category as conceptualised in the study. The current investigation puts together a novel methodology for classification based on the main instruments proposed in literature: a letter grade classification and Turner’s f-index. The results and the methodological proposal are especially relevant considering the latest PISA (2018) conclusions on Romania characterising the national educational system as underperforming.