Evolution of the characteristic luminosity L_* and normalisation ϕ_* in the best-fitting modified Schechter function, i.e. Eq. (4). The red stars are derived from fitting to the measurements based on the de-blended catalogue in COSMOS only. The blue stars are derived from fitting to both the measurements from the de-blended catalogue in COSMOS and the measurements from Gruppioni et al. (2013). The black squares show the measurements taken from Gruppioni et al. (2013). Top panels: evolution of L_* and ϕ_* as a function of redshift. Bottom panels: evolution of L_* and ϕ_* as a function of lookback time.