Charles Babbage, Technological Change and the National System of Innovation

I investigate the role played by Charles Babbage in the economic analysis of technological change. His contribution is quite important, for the way in which he carried out his studies anticipated themes that are the centre of economics and policy-making today. He considered the economic forces that shape technology and its change, the importance of scientific knowledge, and the role that institutions may play. Particularly in his Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and Some of its Causes, he anticipated the concept of the national system of innovation.