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I have just submitted this article to the World Economic Review where it is now undergoing an online review process.

Re-Opening the Debates on Economic Calculation and Motivation under Socialism

This is the abstract:

According to the orthodox view, a properly functioning price system would be logically impossible under socialism because there are no markets for intermediate goods. This is referred to as the calculation problem. The article takes the contrary view and contends that the absence of these markets creates no logical barrier to such a price system and that it could function effectively as long as the motivation or so-called human nature problem is resolved. Achieving this would require that most workers in a socialist system desire to contribute to the best of their abilities and find in work its own reward. Orthodoxy is also negative on this question. However, as the article shows, there are solid grounds for expecting the emergence of this change in work attitudes in an industrially advanced society. Furthermore, an economy driven by such motivation and unencumbered by capitalist forms of property not only could have a properly functioning price system but a superior one, as the market failure literature attests.