The fictions about buybacks are widespread and are driven as much by ideological blinders as they are by a failure to understand what a business is, and how to operate it. The first is that buybacks can increase or decrease the value of a business, with buyback advocates making the former argument and buyback critics the latter. They are both wrong since buybacks can only redistribute value, not create it. The second is that surge in buybacks has been fed by debt financing, and it is part of a larger and darker picture of over-levered companies catering to greedy, short-term shareholders. The third is that buybacks are bad for an economy, with the logic that the cash that is being used for the buybacks is not being invested back in the business, and that the latter is better for economic growth. The final argument is that the large buybacks at US companies represent cash that is being taken away from other stakeholders, including employees and customers, and is thus unfair.

seekingalpha.com - Data update for dividends buybacks cash flows

An excellent article with loads of data on buybacks and dividends across a business's life cycle.