Infrastructure is often described as the stabilizer in institutional portfolios: long-dated assets, essential services, inflation-linked cash flows and ostensibly lower volatility. These characteristics are real. But how infrastructure performance is benchmarked increasingly undermines clear-eyed risk assessment.
Unlike more mature asset classes, infrastructure lacks a single coherent economic identity. It encompasses regulated utilities, merchant renewables, toll roads, fiber networks, airports, data centers, social assets and digital infrastructure — each governed by distinct regulatory regimes, contractual structures, capital requirements and operating realities.
Yet performance is frequently assessed against blended benchmarks or simple absolute-return targets that compress th
