@article {Scholtens514, author = {Bert Scholtens and Laura Spierdijk}, title = {Does Money Grow on Trees? The Diversification Properties of U.S. Timberland Investments}, volume = {86}, number = {3}, pages = {514--529}, year = {2010}, doi = {10.3368/le.86.3.514}, publisher = {University of Wisconsin Press}, 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. (JEL C14)}, issn = {0023-7639}, URL = {https://le.uwpress.org/content/86/3/514}, eprint = {https://le.uwpress.org/content/86/3/514.full.pdf}, journal = {Land Economics} }