DY
“It would depend on controlling for other factors.”
Exactly my point. Its not like Mcdonalds sits down (daily? Weekly?) and adds up the cost of a burger say meat + cheese + letuce + labor + marketing etc etc + profit = price of burger. There are other factors at play most importantly supply and demand which are not (directly) dependent on the cost of providing the burger
“Is higher cost generally leading to higher prices really debatable?”
Depends what you mean by “cost” it cost more for a supermarket to maintain a parking lot keeping it lit, shoveled etc than the store who doesnt have one. Yet that cost is easily offset by attracting more customers. It doesnt mean automatically mean that the prices at Supermarket A (with parking lot) are more expensive than Supermarket B (without).