This paper tackles the puzzle of Ricardo’s stubborn commitment to a labor theory of value that he himself saw as no more than an approximation to reality and which was heavily opposed by Malthus, his most respected contemporary. We show it is wrong to think that the theory had no analytical...

The standard definition of labour value assumes that capitalists abstain from consumption during the period of replacement. The nonstandard definition of labour value assumes that capitalists consume. Both the transformation problem and the problem of an invariable measure of value are necessary...