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Does Money Grow on Trees? The Diversification Properties of U.S. Timberland Investments

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  • Bert Scholtens
  • Laura Spierdijk

Abstract

This paper quantifies the diversification potential of timberland investments in a mean-variance framework. The starting point is a broad set of benchmark assets represented by various indexes. Including publicly traded timberland investments in the portfolio does not significantly increase mean-variance efficiency. At first sight, U.S. private equity timberland seems to improve the mean-variance frontier, even if the portfolio already contains a forestry and paper equity index. However, after removing the appraisal smoothing bias from the raw timberland data, there is much less evidence that private equity timberland investments increase mean-variance efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Bert Scholtens & Laura Spierdijk, 2010. "Does Money Grow on Trees? The Diversification Properties of U.S. Timberland Investments," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:86:y:2010:iii:1:p514-529
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Courtland L. Washburn & Clark S. Binkley, 1993. "Do Forest Assets Hedge Inflation?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 69(3), pages 215-224.
    2. Timothy J. Riddiough & Mark Moriarty & P.J. Yeatman, 2005. "Privately Versus Publicly Held Asset Investment Performance," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 33(1), pages 121-146, March.
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    4. DeRoon, Frans A. & Nijman, Theo E., 2001. "Testing for mean-variance spanning: a survey," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 111-155, May.
    5. Fisher, Jeffrey D & Geltner, David M & Webb, R Brian, 1994. "Value Indices of Commercial Real Estate: A Comparison of Index Construction Methods," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 137-164, September.
    6. Changyou Sun & Daowei Zhang, 2001. "Assessing the Financial Performance of Forestry-Related Investment Vehicles: Capital Asset Pricing Model vs. Arbitrage Pricing Theory," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 617-628.
    7. Robert Edelstein & Daniel Quan, 2006. "How Does Appraisal Smoothing Bias Real Estate Returns Measurement?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 41-60, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicola Livingstone & Nick Gallent & Iqbal Hamiduddin & Meri Juntti & Phoebe Stirling, 2021. "Beyond Agriculture: Alternative Geographies of Rural Land Investment and Place Effects across the United Kingdom," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Mei, Bin, 2015. "Illiquidity and risk of commercial timberland assets in the United States," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 67-78.
    3. Mei, Bin, 2019. "Timberland investments in the United States: A review and prospects," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Hultkrantz, Lars & Mantalos, Panagiotis, 2018. "Hedging with trees: Tail-hedge discounting of long-term forestry returns," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 52-57.
    5. Noumir, Ashraf & Langemeier, Michael, 2020. "Farmland Investment: A Portfolio Perspective," Journal of the ASFMRA, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, vol. 2020.
    6. Wan, Yang & Clutter, Michael L. & Mei, Bin & Siry, Jacek P., 2015. "Assessing the role of U.S. timberland assets in a mixed portfolio under the mean-conditional value at risk framework," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 118-126.
    7. Martinez-Oviedo, Raul & Medda, Francesca, 2017. "Assessing the effects of adding timberland and farmland into resource-based Sovereign Wealth Fund portfolios," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 24-40.
    8. Parajuli, Rajan & Chang, Sun Joseph, 2015. "Real Assets and Inflation: Which Real Assets Hedge Inflation," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205283, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Mei, Bin & Clutter, Michael L., 2020. "Return and information transmission of public and private timberland markets in the United States," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    10. Gao, Lei & Mei, Bin, 2013. "Investor attention and abnormal performance of timberland investments in the United States," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 60-65.

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    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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