A number of recent critics have alleged that the unconventional monetary policies followed by major central banks benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. Less wealthy savers in particular are said by these critics to suffer during quantitative easing (QE) programmes.

But a working paper recently published by Italy's central bank argues that the European Central Bank (ECB) has not been robbing the poor to feed the rich. In A "reverse Robin Hood"? The distributional implications of non