Does urban green development attention improve energy resource misallocation?

Energy resource misallocation is a vital factor inhibiting energy efficiency improvement. This study uses city panel data from China and employs a theoretical and empirical research method to examine the impact of urban green development attention on energy resource misallocation. The study finds that urban green development attention has improved energy resource misallocation in Chinese cities. Urban green development attention improves energy resource misallocation through strengthening environmental regulation, promoting green technology innovation, and driving the greening of industrial structures. The impact of urban green development attention on energy resource misallocation exhibits significant heterogeneity, with more prominent improvement effects in central-western cities, resource-based cities, cities with low economic development levels, and high green finance development cities. The development of the digital economy is conducive to enhancing the energy resource misallocation improvement effect of urban green development attention. The conclusions of this study have strong implications for alleviating energy resource misallocation in cities, thereby improving urban energy efficiency.