Pricing patterns as outcomes of product position

Prior empirical work shows that different markets are characterized by diff erent pricing patterns, such as Bertrand-Nash pricing or Stackelberg leader -follower pricing. I consider a duopolistic market where ex ante identical firms sequentially position their products prior to competing on prices (in a single- or multiperiod setting) and show that the unique equilibrium out come involves (i) firms choosing Stackelberg pricing over Bertrand-Nash pri cing; and (ii) the positioning first mover acting as the price leader. An a ttractive property of this model is that the ex post larger firm acts as th e price leader, which is consistent with prior empirical evidence.