This article provides a comprehensive examination of corporate responses to financial distress during an economy-wide crisis, specifically through the restructuring of assets (through asset sales, mergers, or liquidations) and/or liabilities. Using firm-level data from five countries hardest hit by the East Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, this study contrasts the effects that financial and corporate governance variables have on restructuring choices. The study finds that, during a crisis, financial constraints and corporate governance each have a large effect on restructuring choices.