This is one the main findings of the 2016 Euro Plus Monitor, the authoritative bi-annual competitiveness ranking published at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday by the Lisbon Council and Berenberg.
The report says that Britain "already benefits" from light-touch regulation.
"Its problems," says the report, "lie in policy areas such as macroeconomic management and the housing market over which the EU has little influence."
It comes as EU leaders converged on Brussels on Thursday for a one-day summit which will discuss Brexit.
The study ranks EU countries based on their fundamental health and adjustment progress in a "unique" double indicator.
This year, the model is expanded and updated to cover all 28 EU member states and includes special chapters on Brexit and the economic risks of "populism."
The findings come as former UK Liberal MEP Andrew Duff urged EU leaders meeting on Thursday to provide "clarity" on the Brexit process.
Duff, now a visiting fellow at the Brussels based European Policy Centre think tank, said, "The meeting of the 27 EU leaders over dinner on Thursday is their first chance to have a real political debate about Brexit since the summer.
"In the absence of any clear signal from London about where the UK wants to go when it leaves the EU, the summit debate will inevitably be more about process than content. Yet clarity about process on the EU side would be very helpful, especially as the British end of Brexit is embroiled in legal and parliamentary battles."
Duff, an arch federalist, said the summit should consider a range of options including the possibility of a "complete change of heart and mind" by the British on Brexit.
He added, "This would only really be possible after an emergency general election in which an avowedly pro-EU government replaced that of Theresa May. Neither an early election nor such an alternative administration is in prospect.
"But these are questions which the European Council would be wise to reflect on as it turns its serious attention to the business of Brexit," said Duff, who was a Liberal MEP from 1999-2014.