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CarlShulman comments on Is The Blood Thicker Near The Tropics? Trade-Offs Of Living In The Cold - Less Wrong
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There are some articles claiming to find that economic productivity improves somewhat when air conditioning is introduced to hot regions, and during colder years in hot regions with low penetration of air conditioning. The effects may be exaggerated for the usual publication and other biases, but the sign makes sense: if you spend even a few minutes a day fanning yourself, drinking water, or feeling overheated you will have less time to work. And the burden of distracting heat certainly feels like an impairment to intellectual work.
Yeah, I think anyone who's been to Rio, or Jeddah, on a sunny summer day knows that the heat impairs a lot as well.
How long do people in the cold spend shoving snow, drinking hot tea and changing clothes is also a factor.
It is impossible to work at freezing, and impossible to work at 45 celsius.
The average high of the hottest month in Rio is only slightly warmer than the average high of the hottest month in Boston. So it seems that summer heat should not be much more of a problem in typical tropical climates than in temperate high-latitude cities like Boston.
Overall the net effect of high-latitude environment (minus tropical disease protection) is probably very negative, with substantial efficiency losses relative to tropical type climates. The benefits of avoiding tropical disease would more than compensate, however.