Universities play an important role in the economic development-knowledge economy. Previous studies proposition that universities significantly contribute to the economic development of the countries. Countries implement policies to efficiently connect higher education and the economy. This study explores the relationships between the university performances measured by the world university rankings and the gross domestic product. We employed the data from the World Bank and two university rankings for a period of 2011-2016. We ran correlation analysis followed by t-test analysis for confirming the linear and non-linear relationship. For robustness, we used chi-squared test for independence. The result shows there is a positive non-linear relationship between university performances and GDP. Indicators for citation and research suggests the quality of the research matters more than the mere research and publications. We may conclude that the "research quality" of the university intensive in researching can contribute indirectly to the economic development of the countries.