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3D printing technology enables economies to produce goods locally, so conventional wisdom has been that it would dramatically reduce international trade; however, new University of California San Diego and World Bank research presents robust evidence that 3D printing expanded trade.
The paper coauthored by Caroline Freund, economist and dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy, finds that 3D printing changed production processes, but supply chains remained intact. The study is the first to examine the impact 3D printing has on trade.
Published in the Journal of International Economics, the paper looks at the production of hearing aids—a good most commonly produced by 3D printing.
The results reveal that the shift to 3D printing led to a doubling or near doubling in producers’ exports after five years and the technology was…
