José Antonio Alonso is Professor of Applied Economics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Previously, he was Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University (SIPA), General Director of Economic Cooperation at the Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, vice-chancellor at Universidad Internacional Menendez Pelayo, and director of the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI). He was member of the High-Level Group of Wise Persons on the European Financial Architecture for Development (2019), member of the Committee for Development Policy (UN ECOSOC) from 2007 to 2018, and member of the European Advisory Group of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2012 to 2014. He is a member of the Consejo de Cooperación para el Desarrollo (Spain). His has published research on growth and development, international economic relations, and financing for development.José Antonio Ocampo is Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Member of the Committee on Global Thought, and Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University. He is also the Chair of the Committee for Development Policy, an expert committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Ocampo has previously served in a number of positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia. most notably as United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. He has published extensively on macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial issues, economic and social development, international trade, and Colombia and Latin American economic history.

• 1: José Antonio Alonso and José Antonio Ocampo: Economic traps and progress in Middle-Income Countries: An Introduction 2: Homi Kharas and Indermit Gill: Growth strategies to avoid the Middle-Income Traps 3: Keun Lee: Innovation and the three detours for economic growth beyond the middle-income stage 4: José Antonio Alonso: Is there an institutional trap in MICs? 5: Richard Doner and Ben Ros Schneider: Centripetal politics and institutional building in existing the middle-income traps 6: Mario Pezzini: Citizen´s raising expectations: A call to rebuild the social contract 7: Christopher Hoy and Andy Sumner: Is there new capacity for redistribution to end poverty in MICs? 8: Juliana Martínez Franzoni and Diego Sánchez-Ancochea: Promoting universal social policy in MICs 9: Rolph Van Der Hoeven: Employment and labour markets in MICs: How to cope with technological change and global challenges 10: Emilio Padilla: Should middle-income countries implement environmental policies? 11: Stephany Griffith-Jones: National development finance in middle-income countries: The role of national development banks 12: Otaviano Canuto, Matheus Cavallari and Tiago Ribeiro dos Santos: Middle-income countries and Multilateral Development Banks: Traps on the way to graduation 13: José Antonio Alonso and Jonathan Glennie: The disruptive role of MICs in the development cooperation system: Providers and recipients 14: Renato Baumann: Global value chains, Preferential Trade and the middle-income trap 15: José Antonio Ocampo: Middle-income countries and the international monetary system