The Chinese government initiated the Feed-In Tariff ("FIT') policy for downstream power generation in August 2013. The effectiveness of the downstream FIT policy has attracted the attention of academia and government. Using the quarterly data of listed solar PV companies between 2009 and 2015, this paper provides an empirical analysis regarding the effects of the downstream FIT policy. We find that (1) the FIT policy has significantly enhanced the inventory turnover of listed PV firms and improved their profitability; (2) the FIT policy has significant effects on the inventory turnover of midstream companies and mixed industry-chain companies mainly engaged in downstream operations; (3) FIT policy is more favorable towards increasing the inventory turnover of private enterprises. Our results indicate that the FIT policy can have substantial effects on the sustainable development of China's solar photovoltaic industry. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.