from paper: "However, the rental yield component is typically considerably higher and more stable than the dividend yield of equities so that total returns are of comparable magnitude"

my take away was that equities produce a lot of wealth, but squander it by not returning it to shareholders (lack of dividends). look how many tech companies refuse to pay dividends because 'we are a growth company, we are always a start up". i hate stock buy backs, I think it just rewards people exiting the stock.

in short, if you are a property owner, you can garentee cash flows. economy goes up, down, you more less have an income stream. stocks, they will always go out of business. a company that never returns money to share holders in the end is always worthless, but today, that is in vogue.

Putting profits into stock buy backs instead of dividends still returns money to share holders (through the retiring of shares bought back.) It’s generally preferred since it allows shareholders to postpone (perhaps indefinitely) paying tax on the money returned. Good for shareholders but bad for society.

Unless the stock price declines after the buyback....

If you sell enough stock to own the same dollar amount of the company whenever a buyback happens, it should be basically equivalent to a dividend.