Papers

Selected Papers by Field

See my google scholar profile or my NIH bibliography for more.

Nutrition

Melissa Knox, Jamie Wallace, Barbara Baquero, KeliAnne Hara-Hubbard, Jessica Jones-Smith. Healthy Food Benefit Programs, Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, and Food Security. JAMA Network Open, August 2025.

Jessica C Jones-Smith, Anna M Localio, Melissa A Knox, Tom Lindman, Janne Boone-Heinonen, Aileen M Ochoa, and Anirban Basu. Universal Free School Meals and Child Body Mass Index: Impact Among Children in Community-Based Healthcare Organizations. Health Affairs Scholar, volume 3, 2025.

Anna Localio, Paul Hebert, Melissa Knox, Wyatt P. Bensken, Aileen M. Ochoa, Jennifer Sonney, Jessica C. Jones-Smith. School Provision of Universal Free Meals and Blood Pressure Outcomes Among Youths. JAMA Network Open. September, 2025.

Anna Localio, Melissa A. Knox, Anirban Basu, Tom Lindman, Lina Walkinshaw, and Jessica Jones-Smith, Universal Free School Meals Policies and Childhood Obesity Pediatrics, March 2024.

Sweetened Beverage Taxes

Melissa Knox and Jessica C. Jones-Smith, Consumption Responses to Sweetened Beverage Taxes by Household Income in Four U.S. Cities. Health Economics, Vol 34, Issue 1, January 2025.

Jessica C Jones-Smith, Melissa Knox, Suman Chakrabarti, Jamie Wallace, Lina Walkinshaw, Stephen J Mooney, Jessica Godwin, David E. Arterburn, Joanna Eavey, Nadine Chan, and Brian E. Saelens, Sweetened Beverage Tax Implementation and Change in Body Mass Index Among Children in Seattle. JAMA Network Open, May 2024.

Jessica C. Jones-Smith, Melissa A. Knox, Norma B. Coe, Lina P. Walkinshaw, John Schoof, Deven Hamilton, Philip M. Hurvitz, James Krieger, Sweetened Beverage Taxes: Economic Benefits and Costs According to Household Income, Food Policy, Volume 110, 2022.

Vanessa M. Oddo, Melissa A. Knox, Lina Pinero Walkinshaw, Brian E. Saelens, Nadine Chan, Jessica C. Jones-Smith, Evaluation of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax on Tax Support and Perceived Economic and Health Impacts, Preventive Medicine Reports, Volume 27, 2022.

Jessica C. Jones-Smith, Lina Pinero Walkinshaw, Vanessa M. Oddo, Melissa Knox, Marian L. Neuhouser, Philip M. Hurvitz, Brian E. Saelens, Nadine Chan, Impact of a Sweetened Beverage Tax on Beverage Prices in Seattle, WA, Economics & Human Biology, Volume 39, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100917

Melissa A. Knox, Vanessa M. Oddo, Lina Pinero Walkinshaw, Jessica Jones-Smith, Is the Public Sweet on Sugary Beverages? Social Desirability Bias and Sweetened Beverage Taxes, Economics & Human Biology, Volume 38, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100886

Other Research

Atwood, Alicia and Emerson, Tisha L. N. and Knox, Melissa A. and Taznin, Mahjuja M., Online Platforms for Classroom Experiments: A Primer for New Adoptees, The Journal of Economic Education, Vol 54, No 4, October 2023.

Vanessa M. Oddo, Jessica C. Jones-Smith, and Melissa A. Knox. Changes in Precarious Employment and Health in the United States Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preventive Medicine Reports, volume 31, page 102113, 2023.

Melissa Knox, Creating a Preference for Prevention: The Role of Universal Health Care in the Demand for Preventive Care among Mexico’s Vulnerable Populations, Health Policy and Planning, Volume 33, Issue 7, September 2018, Pages 853–860. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czy062

Campos-Vázquez, Raymundo M.; Knox, Melissa A. Social Protection Programs and Employment: The Case of Mexico’s Seguro Popular Program, Economía Mexicana. Nueva Época, vol. XXII, núm. 2, 2013, pp. 403-448.