The value in Marx and Garegnani’s fallacy

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a critique of Garegnani’s essays on
the Marxian labor theory of value. Garegnani has been seen as one of the main representatives
of the neo-Ricardian school, which breaks away with Marx’s labor theory of value.
According to Garegnani, the labor theory has proved to be unable to provide adequate answers
to the objectives it poses. This paper is aimed at showing that Garegnani’s position,
which reduces the meaning of Marx’s labor theory to a non-circular determination of prices
and profit rates, is fallacious. Furthermore, the paper tries to show that the importance of
Marx’s theory goes far beyond the role that Garegnani has assigned to it and that it constitutes,
in fact, an indispensable tool to understand the laws of motion of the capitalist system.

JEL Classification: B51; D46.