Does Machine Translation Affect International Trade? Evidence from a Large Digital Platform
研究利用数字平台数据，发现引入新机器翻译系统使平台出口增加10.9%，证明AI已开始提升经济效率，对关注AI经济影响和贸易壁垒的学者有参考价值。
Artificial intelligence (AI) is surpassing human performance in a growing number of domains. However, there is limited evidence of its economic effects. Using data from a digital platform, we study a key application of AI: machine translation. We find that the introduction of a new machine translation system has significantly increased international trade on this platform, increasing exports by 10.9%. Furthermore, heterogeneous treatment effects are consistent with a substantial reduction in translation costs. Our results provide causal evidence that language barriers significantly hinder trade and that AI has already begun to improve economic efficiency in at least one domain. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.