<p>If Marxist value theory is to progress beyond the binary of orthodoxy vs. skepticism, it will have to embrace <i>both</i> qualitative research into the social relations underlying economic phenomena, <i>and</i> careful quantitative modeling using mathematical tools. Scientific conclusions must also be accepted, wherever they may lead. In this spirit, new investigations in the theory of the abstract capitalist economy center on a concept of the <i>abstract rate of exploitation</i>, which establishes the existence of a value dimension consisting of labor time that lies behind the visible price, profit and wage structure. Marx’s “prices of production,” then, <i>are</i> profit-rate-equalizing <i>quantities of labor time</i>; labor contained in commodities is thus distinct from labor expended in their production. The “transformation problem” is replaced by the <i>capitalist value determination problem.</i> The solution reveals, surprisingly, that the composition of output helps shape not only the labor values but also the resulting profit rate, wage rate and prices. There is a deep connection between outward economic forms and underlying social relations, including crucially those that are not expressed in conscious optimizing behavior. Moreover, bringing this connection to light reveals the close relation of the value dimension to a full comprehension of capitalist social reality at the most abstract and general level.</p>