Research on COVID-19 responses has largely focused on national governments. Meanwhile, the crisis management literature has noted that such “transboundary crises” require collaborative responses. What role can local governments play? How do citizen perceptions matter? We look for answers in South Korea that has been considered a model case for managing COVID-19. We use data from policy briefs, news reports, and local government websites to show that local governments successfully implemented national initiatives while modifying them to fit local needs and also actively planned and executed local initiatives to address needs that the central government did not address. Based on 2020 national survey data (N = 16,258), we find that COVID-19 cases and deaths are linked to citizen perceptions of vulnerability to COVID-19 and its effect on wellbeing, but not to evaluations of other residents' responses (e.g. following mask mandates, social distancing) or local government responses.

中文翻译：

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地方政府在韩国 COVID-19 应对中的作用

对 COVID-19 应对措施的研究主要集中在国家政府身上。同时，危机管理文献指出，此类“跨界危机”需要协作应对。地方政府可以发挥什么作用？公民的看法如何重要？我们在韩国寻找答案，韩国被认为是管理 COVID-19 的典范案例。我们使用来自政策简报、新闻报道和地方政府网站的数据表明，地方政府成功实施了国家举措，同时根据当地需求对其进行修改，并积极规划和执行地方举措，以解决中央政府未解决的需求。基于2020年全国调查数据（N = 16,258），我们发现 COVID-19 病例和死亡与公民对 COVID-19 脆弱性的看法及其对福祉的影响有关，但与对其他居民的反应（例如遵守口罩规定、社会距离）或当地的评估无关政府回应。