In periods of economic crisis, suggest Pomerleano (a specialist in the Financial Sector Operations and Policy Department, World Bank) and Shaw (a former lead economist in the World Bank's Development Prospects Group), governments and multilateral institutions often lack the resources and expertise needed to address corporate distress on a large scale; and policies, institutions, and legal frameworks may not be adequate to the task either. They collect papers form a March 2004 World Bank conference on international best practices in addressing systemic corporate distress. The 15 contributions examine attempts at restructuring around the world, particularly in East Asia; compare restructuring regimes to the US Chapter 11 system; discuss successful asset management companies in Asia; analyze Indonesian restructuring of legal and regulatory jurisdictions; and offer advice on such issues as debt and firm vulnerability, estimating default risk and economy-wide risk transfer, and effective frameworks for insolvency and credit rights.