The headlines are that after inflation, dividend income is the most important part of equity returns for the majority of markets; changes in valuation had important implications in the short run, but tended to smooth out in the long run; growth in book value was a low but steady contributor to performance.

The research covers 1975-2009 and when broken into decades it becomes clear that contributions have changed over time. Dividend income has actually become less important over time falling from 4.6% return in 1975-79 to 2.2% in 2000-2009.

In the last decade it was real book value growth that provided the greatest contribution to returns (providing 3.8%). In previous decades this was the least significant factor.

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