Obstacles to economic freedom such as trade obstacles, finance obstacles, taxes, and corruption affect the ability of micro, small, and
medium enterprises (MSMEs) to maximize firm performance. Existing empirical studies investigating the effect of specific MSMElevel
obstacles to economic freedom are scarce in Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, this paper focuses on analyzing and comparing
the effects of these obstacles to economic freedom on the performance of MSMEs in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia
using firm-level data from the 2015 World Bank Enterprise Survey. The methodology utilizes an ordinary least squares regression, and
endogenous treatment effects regression, in determining which obstacles of economic freedom significantly affect MSME performance.
Overall, it was found that trade obstacle is positively correlated to firm performance in all the countries except in Vietnam, whereas
finance obstacle is negatively correlated to firm performance in all the countries except in Malaysia, whereas results were negative for
taxes in the Philippines and corruption in Vietnam.