The so-called “transformation problem” revisited: A brief comment

This comment deals with Lipietz's presentation of a solution which had been proposed to the transformation problem. Lipietz's account can be criticized in two respects. First, his attempt to integrate the familiar Morishima-type approach with the newer one is based on a confusion between the conceptual and factual determination of the value of labor power. Second, his demonstration of the mathematical conditions for the validity of the new interpretation rests on an inappropriate conceptualization of the price and quantity mechanisms associated with capitalist competition. Moreover his results could not be applied to a more general framework which took account, for example, of joint production.