Pierre Desrochers

My Research Interests

I am an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto Mississauga. My main research interests are economic development, technical innovation, business-environment interface, and energy policy and food policy. I have published on these and other subjects in a wide range of academic disciplines and outlets. I have been the recipient of several awards for my work on environmental policy and have authored over 200 columns on a variety of subjects in major international media including the Wall Street Journal and Le Monde. My work has been discussed in outlets ranging from Nature to the Washington Post. I co-authored The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet, the broadest case made on behalf of the economic, social and environmental virtues of the modern agri-business and transportation industries.

I participate in the following research clusters:

Economic Development
Human-Environment Interactions

Selected Publications

“Does rent-seeking entrepreneurship hurt the environment? Historical insights from the US meatpacking industry” (with Andrew Smith). Small Business Economics (forthcoming) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01241-4 (with Andrew Smith)

“Lost Institutional Memory and Policy Advice: The Royal Society of Arts on the Circular Economy Through the Centuries.” Recycling, vol. 10, no. 2 (2025): 49 https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/10/2/49

“Care to Wager Again? An Appraisal of Paul Ehrlich’s Counter-wager Offer to Julian Simon, Part 2: Critical Analysis.” (with Joanna Szurmak and Vincent Geloso), Social Science Quarterly, vol. 102, no. 2 (2021), pp. 808-829 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ssqu.12920

“Care to Wager Again? An Appraisal of Paul Ehrlich’s Counter-bet Offer to Julian Simon, Part 1: Outcomes.” (with Joanna Szurmak and Vincent Geloso), Social Science Quarterly, vol. 102, no. 2 (2021), pp. 786-807 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ssqu.12928

“The Paradoxical Malthusian. A Promethean Perspective on Vaclav Smil’s Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities (MIT Press, 2019) and Energy and Civilization: A History (MIT Press, 2017).” Energies, vol. 13, no. 20 (2020), article 5306 https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/20/5306

“Jane Jacobs as Spontaneous Economic Order Methodologist: Part 2: Metaphors and Methods” (with Joanna Szurmak), Cosmos + Taxis: Studies in Emergent Order and Organization, vol. 4, no. 2 (2017), pp. 21-48 https://cosmosandtaxis.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/szurmak_desrochers_ct...

“Long Distance Trade, Locational Dynamics and By-Product Development: Insights from the History of the American Cottonseed Industry.” (with Joanna Szurmak). Sustainability vol. 9, no. 4 (2017), article 579 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/579