He joined the department after completing his Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York City in 1997. Before pursuing a doctorate at Columbia, Professor Beaulieu worked as economist for the government of Kenya and for the Bank of Canada. His research examines the political economy and distributional consequences of international trade policy in Canada and the United States. He was awarded the 1998 Petro-Canada Young Innovators Award to study the impact of Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement on manufacturing plant closures in the United States and Canada. More recently Dr. Beaulieu was awarded a three-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada to conduct research on the political economy of Canada's trade policy from its first use of commercial policy with the Cayley and Galt tariff in 1858 to the present.