Sebastien Breau
Title:
Professor and Department Chair
Research areas:
Economic geography
Regional economic development
Spatial inequalities
International trade
Quantitative methods
Innovation and knowledge complexity
Labour market dynamics
Biography:
I am a Professor in the Department of Geography at McGill University. Before coming to McGill, I completed my PhD in geography at the University of California, Los Angeles (2006) and a Master’s in economics at the Université Laval (1999). My bachelor’s degree – in social sciences and economics – is from the Université de Moncton (1995), which is located in the city I grew up in. In between degrees, I also worked as an economist for the Conference Board of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development.
At McGill, I serve as Department Chair and Academic Director of the McGill-Concordia Quebec Inter-university Center for Social Statistics (QICSS) Lab. In my spare time, I can often be found camping (preferably by a quiet lake somewhere!), reading, out and about on a bike, at an outdoor rink or on the slopes with family and friends.
Current research:
As an applied economic geographer, my research focuses on developing datasets that allow us to explore the spatial dimensions of income inequality and better understand the factors contributing to growing spatial inequalities (as well as their consequences). By extension, my work also addresses the broader policy implications of spatial inequalities from a regional economic development perspective, mainly within the North American context.
I sit on the editorial board of several journals in the field and also serve as co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Regional Science.
On-going projects:
- “Understanding Canada’s changing space-economy: processes, outcomes and policies”. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Grant, Co-Investigator with Richard Shearmur, Project Lead (2026-2031).
- “Arctic Economy and Social Transitions – The WAGE Circumpolar Partnership.” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partnership Grant. Co-Investigator with Gérard Duhaime, Project Lead (2021-2027).
- “Canadian Journal of Regional Science.” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Aid to Scholarly Journals, Principal Investigator (2026-2029).
Selected publications:
- Wylie, M., Riva, M. and S. Breau (Forthcoming) Ailing inequality: The impact of urban inequality on health, 2001-2016, Canadian Geographies.
- Breau, S. and J. Dubé (2026) Editorial note / Note éditoriale. Canadian Journal of Regional Science / Revue canadienne des sciences régionales, 49(2): 3-4. (available here)
- Kutuka, S., Riva, M., Debanné, L., Breau, S., Adam, C. and R. R. Das (2026) La précarité énergétique au Québec : une problématique à reconnaître et des inégalités à examiner, Revue canadienne des sciences régionales, 49(2): 38-48. (available here)
- Lee, A. and S. Breau (2026) Scales of inequality: Applying a two-stage Theil decomposition approach to examine the changing spatial dimensions of regional inequality in the US, 1970-2020, International Regional Science Review. (available here)
- Breau, S. and Y. Marchand (2026) Mapping regional disparities in labour market risk and exposure to automation in Canada, Regional Studies. (available here)
- Sleeth, M., Riva, M., Manaugh, K. and S. Breau (2025) ‘Left-behind places’: Examining the evolution of a concept with an application to the Canadian regional development context, Growth & Change. 56(4): e70055. (available here)
- Dubé, J. and S. Breau (2024) Editorial note / Note éditoriale. Canadian Journal of Regional Science / Revue canadienne des sciences régionales, 47(2): 3-4. (available here)
- Lee, A. and S. Breau (2024) Canada’s economic centre of gravity: New estimates using local labour market areas, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 47(2): 29-38. (available here)
- Riva, M., Grubbs, E. and S. Breau (2024) The geography of energy poverty in Canada: A municipal level analysis, Energy Policy, 195. (available here)
- Breau, S. and A. Lee (2023) The evolution of the Kuznets curve in Canada, Papers in Regional Science. 102(4): 709-735. (available here)
- Breau, S., Wylie, M., Manaugh, K. and S. Carr (2023) Inclusive growth, public transit infrastructure investments and neighbourhood trajectories of inequality in Montreal, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Society. 55(8): 2009-2030. (available here)
- Breau, S. and J. Dubé (2023) Editorial note / Note éditoriale. Canadian Journal of Regional Science / Revue canadienne des sciences régionales, 46(3): 3-7. (available here)
Research lab members:
- Morgan Sleeth, PhD student (2021- )
- Abigail Milovancevic, MA student (2025- )
- Jesse Sutton, Postdoc fellow (2025- )
- Della Harris, BA independent studies (2025- )
Group:
Faculty