Tomás Olivier
(Pronouns: He, Him)
Office Hours:
Monday 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. In person or via Zoom appointment
Tomás Olivier
Assistant Professor, Public Administration and International Affairs Department
Assistant Director, Center for Policy Design and Governance
Senior Research Associate, Center for Policy Research
Senior Research Associate, Program on Latin America and the Caribbean
Courses
- 2024 Fall
- PAI 721 Introduction to Statistics
- 2024 Spring
- PAI 305 Policy Implementation
- PSC 300 Selected Topics - Policy Implementation
Highest degree earned
Bio
Tomás Olivier is an assistant professor of public administration and international affairs and senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. He researches the governance of natural resources in the United States and Argentina.
Olivier studies how governments, users and organizations interact and create formal arrangements to sustainably manage water resources. One of his long-standing projects is on the governance of the New York City watersheds, the largest unfiltered drinking water system in the U.S.
After earning a bachelor's degree in his home country of Argentina, Olivier received a Ph.D. in government and public policy from the University of Arizona in 2017. Prior to joining the Maxwell School, he completed a postdoc at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and worked as an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University for three years.
Areas of Expertise
Research Interests
Selected Publications
- Journal Articles
- Olivier, T., Shin, H. C., Yu, D. J. and Garcia, M., "Rule-mediated connectivity in social-ecological-technological systems: A comparative network analysis of reservoir operation rules in Coyote Valley Dam (United States) and Ameghino Dam (Argentina)." Journal of Environmental Management, 2025.
- Olivier, T., Vallury, S., "Institutional fit and policy design in water governance: Nebraska's Natural Resources Districts." Policy Studies Journal, 2024.
- Yu, D. J., Shin, H. C., Olivier, T., Garcia, M., Meerow, S. and Park, J., "Logical interdependencies in infrastructure: What are they, how to identify them, and what do they mean for infrastructure risk analysis?." Risk Analysis, 2024.
- Olivier, T., Bell, E. V., García Asorey, M. I. and Rodas‐Gaiter, A., "Press, pulse, and perceptions: How does media attention signal perceptions about environmental crises?." Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, 2023.
- Trimble, M., Olivier, T., Jacobi, P. R., Pahl-Wostl, C., Donnell, L. M., Giordano, G., Laura, R., Tadeu, N. D., Salvadores, F., Torres, P. H., Mazzeo, N. and Pascual, M., "Assessing the role of Basin committees and multilevel coordination in response to water crises in South America." Ecology & Society, 2022.
- Olivier, T., Tadeu, N. D. and Donnell, L. M., "Crisis de agua en el Cono Sur: aprendizajes desde Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay." Di´alogos Socioambientais, 2022.
- Trimble, M., Olivier, T., Anjos, L. A., Dias Tadeu, N., Giordano, G., Mac Donnell, L., Laura, R., Salvadores, F., Santana-Chaves, I. M., Torres, P. H., Pascual, M., Jacobi, P. R., Mazzeo, N., Zurbriggen, C., Garrido, L., Jobbágy, E. and Pahl-Wostl, C., "How do basin committees deal with water crises? Reflections for adaptive water governance from South America." Ecology and Society, 2022.
- Bell, E. V., Olivier, T., "Following the Paper Trail: Systematically Analyzing Outputs to Understand Collaborative Governance Evolution." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2022.
- Olivier, T., Schlager, E., "Rules and the Ruled: Understanding Joint Patterns of Institutional Design and Behavior in Complex Governing Arrangements." Policy Studies Journal, 2022.
- Olivier, T., Berardo, R., "Birds of a Feather Fight Together: Forum Involvement in a Weakly Institutionalized Ecology of Policy Games." Policy Studies Journal, 2022.
- Olivier, T., "Mechanism Design in Regional Arrangements for Water Governance." International Journal of the Commons, 2021.
- Schlager, E. C., Bakkensen, L. A., Olivier, T. and Hanlon, J., "Institutional design for a complex commons: Variations in the design of credible commitments and the provision of public goods." Public Administration, 2021.
- Donnell, L. M., Olivier, T., Salvadores, F. and Pascual, M., An´alisis de la Gobernanza y Aprendizaje de la Crisis en la Cuenca del Valle Inferior del R´ıo Chubut. , 2020.
- Pascual, M., Olivier, T., Brandizi, L., Rimoldi, P., Malnero, H. A. and Kaless, G., "Cuenca del R´ıo Chubut. An´alisis de Situaci´on para Fondos de Agua. Fase de factibilidad: Versi´on 1." Alianza Latinoamericana de Fondos de Agua, 2020.
- Liberoff, A., Pessacg, N., Cannizzaro, A., D´ıaz, L., Hern´andez, M., Donnell, L. M., Olivier, T., Pascual, M., Raguileo, D. and Salvadores, F., Un r´ıo, todas las aguas: El R´ıo Chubut, nexo entre ambiente y sociedad. Resumen de Investigaciones. , 2020.
- Pessacg, N., Liberoff, A., Cannizzaro, A., D´ıaz, L., Hern´andez, M., Donnell, L. M., Olivier, T., Pascual, M., Raguileo, D. and Salvadores, F., Un r´ıo, todas las aguas: Im pactos del Cambio Clim´atico en el R´ıo Chubut, cambios, percepciones, y perspectiva de g´enero. , 2020.
- Book Chapters
- Trimble, M., Jacobi, P., Olivier, T., Zurbriggen, C., Pascual, M., Garrido, L. and Mazzeo, N., "Reconfiguring Water Governance for Resilient Social-Ecological Systems in South America." In Water Resilience: Management and Governance in Times of Change. Baird, J., Plummer, R. (eds.) Springer International Publishing, 2021.
- Trimble, M., Torres, P. H., Jacobi, P. R., Dias Tadeu, N., Salvadores, F., Mac Donnell, L., Olivier, T., Giordano, G., dos Anjos, L. A., Santana-Chaves, I. M., Pascual, M., Mazzeo, N. and Jobbágy, E., "Towards Adaptive Water Governance in South America: Lessons from Water Crises in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay." In World Sustainability Series. , 2021.
- Olivier, T., Scott, T. A. and Schlager, E., "Institutional Design and Complexity: Protocol Network Structure in Response to Different Collective-Action Dilemmas." In Networks in Water Governance. Springer International Publishing, 2020.
- Book Review
- Olivier, T., "Water Crises and Governance: Rein venting Collaborative Institutions in an Era of Uncertainty." Water Alter natives, 2020.
Presentations and Events
Olivier, T., Schlager, E., Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR 2024), "Drivers of policy change and their effect on policy design in a regional governing arrangement" (May 15, 2024 - May 17, 2024)
Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR 2024), "The Future of Scholarship on Complex Governance Systems" (May 15, 2024 - May 17, 2024)
Conference on Policy Process Research (COPPR 2024), "Panel 13: Investigating Collaborative and Polycentric Governance Structures. " (May 15, 2024 - May 15, 2024)
Research Seminar on Government and Public Policy, Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Chile), "Diseño Institucional: Aplicaciones y desafíos para el estudio de la acción colectiva en la gobernanza del agua" (April 19, 2024 - April 19, 2024)
Water Science and Policy Seminar, SUNY ESF, "Institutional design & behavior in water governance" (April 9, 2024 - April 9, 2024)
Olivier, T., Schlager, E., 2023 APPAM Fall Research Conference, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, "What Shapes Micro-Level Policy Change? Tracking and Analyzing the Complexity of Policy Changes over Time" (November 9, 2023 - November 11, 2023)
Olivier, T., Vallury, S., 2023 APPAM Fall Research Conference, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, "Institutional Fit and Policy Design in Water Governance: Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts" (November 9, 2023 - November 9, 2023)
Olivier, T., Schlager, E., 119th Annual Conference, American Political Science Association, "Micro-level policy change in an intergovernmental governing arrangement" (August 31, 2023 - September 3, 2023)
Olivier, T., Schlager, E., 118th Annual Conference, American Political Science Association, "Details tell the story: policy de sign and policy change in an intergovernmental governing arrangement" (September 15, 2022 - September 18, 2022)
Second Annual Institutional Grammar Research Initiative Conference, "Emerging Directions in Institutional Grammar Research" (June 20, 2022 - June 22, 2022)
Research and Policy Seminar Series, Department of Public Administration University of Illinois, "Institutions as networks: Applications and challenges in the study of water presentations governance" (March 25, 2022)
Park, S., Olivier, T., Pouladi, P., Yousefi, P., Garcia, M. E., Yu, D. J., American Geophysical Union Fall Conference, "Challenges and opportunities in coding the governance of water resource systems: problems, procedures, and potential solutions based on the Lake Mendocino reservoir, Califor nia" (December 13, 2021 - December 17, 2021)
Annual Faculty Showcase, College of Arts & Letters Florida Atlantic University, "Water Governance Dynamics in the Patagonian Steppe" (December 3, 2021)
Olivier, T., Bell, E., Asorey, M. I., Rodas-Gaiter, A., American Society for Public Administration Annual Conference, "Press, pulse, and public perceptions: how well does media attention to water crises signal shifts in agenda and response across local governments?" (April 9, 2021 - April 15, 2021)
Hanlon, J., Olivier, T., Western Political Science Association Annual Conference, "Issue framing across polit ical subcultures: Evidence from water bottling debates in California and Florida" (April 1, 2021 - April 3, 2021)
Bell, E., Olivier, T., Southern Po litical Science Association’s Virtual 2021 Annual Meeting, "The right tool for the job: assessing variations in the design of collaborative strategies" (January 6, 2021 - January 9, 2021)
Olivier, T., Schlager, E., Institutional Grammar Research Initiative (IGRI) Seminar (online), "Institutional design using the Institutional Grammar & social network analysis" (December 4, 2020)
FAU - Brazil Summit (online), Florida Atlantic University, "Water Governance in South America" (November 19, 2020)
Olivier, T., Herzog, L., Schlager, E., Ingold, K., 14th General Conference, Eu ropean Consortium for Political Research, "Comparing the institutional design of polycentric systems for protecting water quality: an application of the grammar of institutions to the Ruhr River and the New York City Watersheds" (August 24, 2020 - August 28, 2020)
Trimble, M., Jacobi, P., Jobbagy, E., Pascual, M., Mazzeo, N., Olivier, T., Zurbriggen, C., Tadeu, N. D., Giordano, G., Donnell, L. M., Salvadores, F., Sallenave, S., Laura, R., Alonso, L., Torres, P., X Congreso de la Red Latinoamericana de Ciencias Ambien tales, "Gobernanza del Agua en America del Sur: Estudios de caso en Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay" (March 6, 2020 - March 10, 2020)
Honors and Accolades
Birkhead-Burkhead Teaching Excellence Award and Professorship, MAIR Program, Department of Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University (May 7, 2024 - 2028)