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Get insights about the digital economy from though leaders in the industry. Read our eveloping works and white papers from the MIT Sloan and MIT IDE team.

Working Papers Ray of Hope? China and the Rise of Solar Energy

Mar 2026

John Van Reenen | Professor, London School of Economics

Ignacio Banares-Sanchez

Robin Burgess

David Laszlo,

Pol Simpson

Yifan Wang

Do industrial policies that promote clean energy offer a “ray of hope”, increasing a country’s growth and welfare, whilst simultaneously reducing carbon emissions? This paper examines whether the impact of Chinese solar subsidies whose implementation by city-regions went alongside massive expansion of the sector and a dramatic fall in global solar prices.