Effect of Leading Officials’ Natural Resources Accountability Audits on Misallocation of Land Resource

Land resource misallocation (LRM) hinders the intensive use and maximization of allocation benefits, while also restricting regional coordinated development and reducing the quality of urban development. It is of great value to optimize the allocation of land resources, correct the mismatch of land resources, improve resource utilization efficiency, and achieve high-quality urban development through administrative means. On the basis of sorting out and summarizing the impact effects of government environmental assessment and the factors affecting urban LRM, this study uses panel data from 270 cities in China as samples and the multi-time difference-in-difference method to empirically test the impact of China’s leading officials’ natural resources accountability audit policy (NRAAP) on urban LRM. Research has found the following: (1) The environmental assessment represented by the pilot of NRAAP to some extent suppresses LRM. (2) NRAAP can have an impact on LRM by increasing government environmental attention. (3) NRAAP has a more significant inhibitory effect on LRM between eastern and non-resource-based cities. Therefore, local governments should innovate environmental assessment systems and optimize land resource allocation strategies according to local conditions and take a sustainable development path guided by green development. This study provides new research ideas and a technical basis for correcting the mismatch of land resources and improving the level of urban sustainable development.