Marxian reproduction prices versus prices of production: probability and convergence

I shall argue two main points. The first is that although Marx is conventionally taken to have formulated two different theories of price in the the three volumes of Capital, labour values in volume I and prices of production in volume III, there is actually a third theory, hidden inside the reproduction schemes of volume II. This theory is not explicit, but can be logically deduced from the constraints that he presents on simple reproduction. It is not a theory of individual prices, but a theory of relative sectoral prices. I will go on to argue that this theory of sectoral prices allows us to make probabilistic arguments about the relative likely-hood that either production prices or labour values will operate at the level of reproduction schemes. This