How much of an economic advantage does having famous, top-ranked universities give a country? Germany has very few or no universities that appear near the top of international university rankings, while the UK has many. Does this give the UK a real economic advantage compared to Germany? If so, where does the greatest effect come from: from the mere fact that those universities gain prestige from appearing near the top of highly rankings, which helps them attract the very brightest foreign students, or from actual differences in the quality of top UK universities vs top German universities, which makes UK graduates more skilled at their jobs?