Pure-Blood and Muggle Marxian Approaches in the Theory of Value and Price

Abstract

This article argues that to make progress in the theory of value and price we must incorporate in the debate of the transformation problem the methodological discussion about how Marxian economics relates to non-Marxian economics. Two alternative approaches to deal with that relationship are presented in a stylized form, called the “pure-blood Marxian approach” and the “muggle Marxian approach.” Two examples of the “muggle Marxian approach,” represented by two of the most influential communists working in the field of academic economics in the West in the 20th century, Piero Sraffa and Oskar Lange, are presented to show the superiority of this approach over the “pure-blood Marxian approach.”