THE IMPACT OF SALES CHANGES ON AGRIBUSINESS PAYROLLS

Agribusiness firms face substantial market risk associated with variations in farm production, output and input prices, exchange rates, and other factors. Some of the risk faced by agribusiness is passed through to the employees of the firm and to the communities where the firms are located, as employment levels are changed in response to these variations. An econometric analysis of the transmission of sales changes into payroll changes was performed for a sample of Georgia agribusiness firms. Transmission elasticities were found to be affected by firm type, size, age, and by the degree of use part-time employees.