Professor John McHale:

It is less in the eurozone, but it is important to distinguish between quantative easing, which is a quite specific unconventional monetary policy, and broader unconventional monetary policies. To the credit of the ECB, it has pursued other types of unconventional monetary policies, such as long-term refinancing operations. That is partly in response to the fact that there is a different type of financial system in Europe. It is more bank based and quantative easing, which is more focused on market financing, is probably less effective than it would be in the US context or even in the UK context. It is not that the ECB has been completely avoiding unconventional policies. My personal view is that it did not do enough and did not do enough early enough, but to say it has not done anything would not be correct.