The Sources of Aggregate Profitability: Marx’s Theory of Surplus Value Revisited

One of the key contributions of recent debates in value theory and in exploitation theory is the idea that there is no ‘transformation problem’ to be solved in Marx’s labor theory of value (LTV). Labor values are not meant to provide an explanation of classical production prices. In line with much of the recent literature, we have argued, however, that a coherent account of values and the labor content of goods can be provided that is able to inform the empirical and theoretical analysis of the basic laws of capitalism, of the exploitative nature of capitalist relations of production, and of the determinants of the key magnitudes of capitalist economies, especially from a macroeconomic perspective..