Publications

Publications

Journal Articles

1.     Melo, G., P. Valizadeh, and R. Nayga, “Did mental and emotional health of SNAP families' children improve during the COVID-19 pandemic?” Preventive Medicine 

During the early COVID-19 pandemic, low-income households' material and non-material well-being of low-income households were negatively affected. Using secondary data, we found that additional benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) mitigated the adverse effects of the pandemic on children’s mental and emotional health.


2.     Melo, G., J.C. Caro, L. Chomali,1 JC. Salgado, N. Aguilar, MA. Foz, L. Joppert, and E. Lopez. 2023. Structural responses to the obesity epidemic in Latin America: what are the next steps for food. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas (Forthcoming)

We discuss some opportunities to continue tackling the obesity epidemic in Latin America under a structural framework to inform policy.


3.     Melo, G., G. Colson, Y. Zhang, and D. Monteza.12022. How to assess? Preferences of students concerning assessments during distance learning using a best-worst scaling approach. PlosONE.17(10).

This work informs instructors that students prefer assessments that evaluate experiential learning over traditional approaches such as exams and quizzes, even though the former might involve more effort and thinking.This is critical as the former involves higher stake learning and can significantly impact learning and academic success.


4.     Melo, G.,  L. Peña-Lévano and K. Luengo1 2022. Economic Dynamics in the Beef Food Supply Chain under Pandemic Conditions. Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 4(4),92-100.

This case study exposes the issues related to the Supply Chain faced during the pandemic relevant to promoting the application of the marketing channel and students’ critical thinking.


5.     Peña-Lévano, L., and G. Melo. 2022. Adaptation of Teaching Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 4(1), 12-33.  [4]

This work shows that although students face challenges learning online, a proper adaptation of instruction can mitigate the negative impact of the switch from in-person to online on students’ learning.


6.     Melo, G., Sanhueza, D., Morales, S., and L. Peña-Lévano. 2021. “What does the pandemic mean for experiential learning? Lessons from Latin America.” Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 3(3), 131-146. [3]

We explored students' experience during online learning; we found that experiential learning of students enrolled in Agriculture was especially affected with potential negative consequences on their career prospects in their future.


7.     Pena, L, G. Melo, S.  Burney, and C. Escalante. 2020. COVID-19: Effects on US Labor, Supply Chains and Consumption. Choices, 3.

We present interesting insights of the impact on the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain, including agricultural labor, and markets.


8.     Melo, G. 2020. The Path Forward: US Consumer and Food Retail Responses to COVID-19. Choices, 35, 3.

I discuss the COVID-19 impact on consumer food shopping behavior and retailer decisions. I identify some demand and supply patterns that emerge during the pandemic and will likely continue in the post-pandemic world.

 

9.     Melo, G., C. Zhen, and G. Colson. 2019. “Does point-of-sale nutrition information improve the nutritional quality of food choices?.” Economics&Human Biology, 35, 133-143.

We analyze the impact of nutrition scores on food purchases. We found that consumers responses to nutrition scores is heterogeneous and depend on the food category. Our results highlight the complexity of providing nutrition information to improve dietary food choices.


10.   Finkelstein, E., W. Li, G. Melo, G. Strombotne, Z. Chen, 2018. “Identifying the effect of shelf nutrition labels on consumer purchases: results of a natural experiment and consumer survey.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 107(4), 647-651.  


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