The Sunshine Effects on Solar Loan Repayments

北大国发院访问副教授，新加坡国立大学商学院房地产系长聘副教授，康奈尔大学应用经济与管理博士，主要研究领域为环境经济学、城市经济学。担任国际期刊China Economic Review共同主编；Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 副主编；Journal of Economic Geography编委会委员；研究成果发表在Nature Climate Change, Nature Human Behaviour, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Review of Finance, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management等杂志。

Solar loans are increasingly used to promote residential solar photovoltaic expansion. However, concerns about their default rate are increasing. This paper studies the psychological effects of sunshine on borrowers’ repayment behaviors. Using administrative datasets from China, we first show borrowers are 20.8% less likely to be delinquent if the sunshine duration is one standard deviation longer in the week of the repayment deadline. Furthermore, borrowers who signed up for solar panels on extremely sunny days have a persistently higher probability of delinquency. We rule out rational explanations and show the result is most consistent with behavioral bias, such as projection bias or salience. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the mechanisms of sunshine effects in renewable energy financing.