Optimal management of a renewable and replaceable resource: the case of coastal groundwater

The nonrenewable-with-backstop model of resource management is extended to cover renewables and applied to the case of coastal groundwater. In the optimal management trajectory, efficiency price exceeds extraction cost by the sum of scarcity rent and "drawdown" cost, the latter remaining large even after the backstop price is reached. In the case of rising demand, optimal management may call for a stage of conservation followed by a stage of drawdown.