The Role of U.S. Infrastructure in Investment Portfolios

Executive Summary. Recent attention has been given to “real estate-related” assets to provide potential enhanced returns and diversification benefits in an investment portfolio. As such, infrastructure has taken on increased investment importance in recent years with the growth in listed and unlisted infrastructure funds, and increased interest in infrastructure as a separate asset class. This paper analyses the risk-adjusted performance and portfolio diversification benefits of infrastructure in the United States over 2000-2006. Recent years have seen significantly enhanced returns for U.S. infrastructure, with significantly reduced risk and enhanced portfolio diversification benefits with all major asset classes.