Unfortunately, the Catalan economic model is but a variant of that of southern Europe, which includes Portugal, Spain and Italy. This model is fundamentally characterised by the low incorporation of knowledge in production. Three indicators make this clear: in these countries between 30% and 40% of employed workers have at most lower secondary education, when in central and northern Europe the proportion does not exceed 15%; in these countries investment in R&D by private companies does not reach 1% of GDP, when there it is between 1.5% and 2.5%; finally, in these countries there is no university ranked among the best 150 in the world (according to the classification most commonly used to measure this evanescent concept).