Fears have been stoked that greater uptake of the technology could dramatically reduce international trade due to the ability for people to produce goods locally.
But research from the University of California San Diego and World Bank suggests that while 3D printing can change production processes, supply chains typically remain intact.
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 the main cause for the rise in exports.
Some 35 other products were also examined, such as running shoes, aircraft parts and prosthetic limbs, which are increasingly being 3D printed, and they found similar patterns.
“The technology is a boon, not a curse to trade,” said the paper’s co-author Caroline Freund. “A country’s exports of hearing aids increased more than trade in other...