Why is the new deal’s impact on the us economy hard to measure? because this was the world’s first great depression and economists did not understand how to measure the new deal’s impact wwii created production demands that benefited businesses and provided jobs that ended widespread unemployment the new deal reforms were spread across several years and changes to the economy can only be measured one year at a time in addition to the new deal, several international trade agreements were signed during this period and that diluted the new deal’s impact