IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/afc/cliome/v9y2015i1p77-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long-run stock returns: evidence from Belgium 1838–2010

Author

Listed:
  • Jan Annaert

    (Antwerp Management School, Antwerp, Belgium & University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium)

  • Frans Buelens

    (University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium)

  • Marc Deloof

    (Antwerp Management School, Antwerp, Belgium & University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium & Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium)

Abstract

We investigate monthly returns of Belgian stocks listed on the Brussels stock exchange in the period 1838–2010. Our dataset is based on official quotation lists of the stock exchange, and it takes into account all common stocks that were ever listed on the stock exchange during the period considered. This allows us to investigate the performance of the market as a whole in a consistent way over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We find that stock returns strongly depend on dividend income. While real capital appreciation tends to be negative, the dividend yield is remarkably stable over time. Stocks were less risky in the nineteenth century than in the twentieth century. While the equity premium is overall positive, the reward for equity risk is very volatile over time. Even in the long-run equity investors frequently earned a negative return. There are no consistent differences between returns on small stocks and large stocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Annaert & Frans Buelens & Marc Deloof, 2015. "Long-run stock returns: evidence from Belgium 1838–2010," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 9(1), pages 77-95, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:9:y:2015:i:1:p:77-95
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-014-0108-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11698-014-0108-8
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to journal subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11698-014-0108-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. le Bris, David & Goetzmann, William N. & Pouget, Sébastien, 2019. "The present value relation over six centuries: The case of the Bazacle company," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 248-265.
    2. Gram, Dennis & Karapanagiotis, Pantelis & Krzyzanowski, Jan & Liebald, Marius & Walz, Uwe, 2021. "An extensible model for historical financial data with an application to German company and stock market data," SAFE Working Paper Series 300, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    3. Gareth Campbell & Meeghan Rogers, 2017. "Integration between the London and New York Stock Exchanges, 1825–1925," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1185-1218, November.
    4. Marc Deloof & Ine Paeleman, 2024. "International entrepreneurship without investor protection: Evidence from initial public offerings in Belgium before the First World War," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 523-553, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Long-run stock returns; Equity premium; Size effect; Nineteenth and twentieth centuries Brussels stock exchange;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N24 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: 1913-

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:9:y:2015:i:1:p:77-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afcccea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.