Meat processing plants use inputs in fixed proportions, but these proportions vary with plant size. Shocks to the supply of labor and livestock induce allocative inefficiency, output reductions, and higher unit costs of production. Both labor conflicts and the pandemic caused long labor shortages resulting in unused capacity and large livestock queues. Industry concentration and vertical integration can mitigate some of these problems by internalizing queuing costs and by reallocating workers across plants. Daily shocks make plants operate with either too many workers or too many live animals. Larger plants choose to be labor-constrained more frequently, creating a trade-off between wages and safety for workers.

中文翻译：

---

关于肉类加工、牲畜排队和工人安全的经济学

肉类加工厂以固定比例使用投入，但这些比例随工厂规模而变化。对劳动力和牲畜供应的冲击会导致分配效率低下、产量减少和单位生产成本增加。劳资冲突和大流行导致长期劳动力短缺，导致产能闲置和大量牲畜排队。行业集中和垂直整合可以通过内部化排队成本和跨工厂重新分配工人来缓解其中的一些问题。日常的冲击使工厂要么有太多的工人，要么有太多的活体动物。较大的工厂选择更频繁地受到劳动力限制，从而在工人的工资和安全之间进行权衡。