Editor’s note

Ranking 8th among participating countries for Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking, South Korea has been relatively successful in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. How have countries like South Korea effectively handled the pandemic, while some failed to do so? Jung Kim, Assistant Professor at the University of North Korean Studies, explores what factors are important in pandemic policy optimization. In responding to national crises, policymakers face trade-offs between health and the economy – should policies prioritize lives or livelihoods? He claims that contrary to common thought that social capital is the most decisive factor in national policy performance, social risk is actually more decisive during a time of crisis politics such as a pandemic. That is, the higher the level of social risk, the more likely the government will be able to facilitate large-scale collective action that induces voluntary civic compliance with government Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) policies. He further explains why some countries have succeeded in their response against the pandemic while some failed through a statistical analysis of the determinants of COVID-19 pandemic policy.

※ The following are excerpts from the article. For the full text, please check the attached file at the top of this page.

Introduction[1]

How have policymakers and citizens responded to the COVID-19 pandemic policy trade-off between health and the economy? Why have some nations succeeded in minimizing the trade-off between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods, but not others? Why and how has South Korea outperformed most other advanced democracies in dealing with the trade-off?[2]

Building on a growing literature that analyzes the trade-off between health and the economy  in designing and implementing national COVID-19 policy responses (Desierto and Koyama 2020; Cheibub, Hong, and Przeworski 2020; Ginsburg and Versteeg 2020), this study attempts to answer the above questions examining the case of South Korea with comparative perspective. This research argues that contra conventional wisdom that social capital is the explanans of variation of national pandemic policy performances, social risk is much more important to facilitate large-scale collective action, which is the political foundation of voluntary civic compliance with government non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) policy recommendation and ultimately successful pandemic policy optimization between health and the economy. 

A simple theoretical framework of pandemic policy optimization will be introduced in the next section. The third describes a quarterly comparison of national policy responses across OECD countries in 2020. The following section provides statistical cross-country analyses on the determinants of pandemic policy optimization over time. ■

• Jung Kim is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Korean Studies, South Korea. He teaches courses on International Relations in East Asia and Political Economy of the Two Koreas, among others. Prior to this, from 2009-2015, he was a Lecturer at the Underwood International College and Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University. During this time, Mr. Kim was also a Chief Researcher at The East Asia Institute. He pursued his Bachelors and Masters in Political Science at Korea University and went on to pursue his Ph.D. at Yale University. His research interests include Comparative Politics and International Relations in East Asia.

• Typeset by Jinkyung Baek, Director of the Research Department
  For inquiries: 02 2277 1683 (ext. 209) I j.baek@eai.or.kr