In this paper, we investigate if there is a link between female ownership and obstacles to firm growth.
Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) data collected in 2006 and 2010 for over 20,000 firms
in 26 Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries, we find strong evidence that female-owned
firms (FOFs) are associated with more obstacles related to crime, theft and disorder, and to practices of
competitors in the informal sector than male-owned firms (MOFs). However, FOFs and MOFs face
similar levels of obstacles related to corruption and access to finance. We further examine the effect of
female ownership on firm performance and find that FOFs exhibit significantly higher labor productivity
than MOFs, while FOFs and MOFs experience similar sales growth. Our results are robust after
controlling for relevant country-level macroeconomic and governance variables, as well as the potential
endogeneity arisen from selection bias.