Do historical stock market returns account for dividends (which is a form of return) or just stock prices?

Answer 1

It depends. Usually you are privided prices and dividends (look at price history on Yahoo! Finance ans you will see what I mean). When someone talks about the return on their stock during a fixed time frame, they usually include dividends.

If you are talking about returns of stock indices, then I can give you a more definitive answer. The Dow Jones averages do include the reinvestment of dividends. The S&P 500 Index does NOT include dividends -- though the S&P does provide an additional index that includes them (the S&P Total Return Index does include dividends).