Beach obtained his BA (Hons.) from McGill University and PhD from Princeton University.
His main research interests are in income distribution and applied labour market analysis. He teaches in the areas of applied econometrics, income distribution, labour economics and industrial relations. He was a co-founder of the Canadian Econometric Study Group, co-initiator of the Canadian Household Panel Survey initiative, co-founding member of the Canadian Employment Research Forum, and Chair of the Data Liberation Initiative. He has served as adviser to numerous government departments and agencies. From 1995 to 2002, he was Editor of Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques. He was Director of the John Deutsch Institute from 2001 to 2009.