*****  To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org  *****

Marco,

You might want to consider using the "degreenet" package:

http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/degreenet/

A good example of how it can be used can be found in this paper:

http://journals.lww.com/stdjournal/Abstract/2008/01000/Degree_Distributions_in_Sexual_Networks__A.8.aspx

hth,
mm

On Sat, 14 Mar 2015, Leij, Marco van der wrote:

> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
> 
> Dear SOCNETters,
>
> 
> 
> I have a simple question for which I would like to hear your views. I got a referee who asks us for a
> “statistical test to discriminate whether these distributions (of financial exposures, in our case) have
> power-law or exponential tails”.
>
> 
> 
> What test would you use? Note that whether the tail distribution is power law or exponential is not the main
> hypothesis of my paper. It’s more descriptive, so the test should be something very simple.
>
> 
> 
> I know that testing power laws has been a long-standing discussion, and here at SOCNET there was a
> discussion after Stumpf & Porter’s Science Perspective article in 2012. But we are now 3 years further, so I
> just wondered what you would do if you are asked for a power-law vs exponential tail test that is simple and
> statistically sound. Any recommendation would be appreciated.
>
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Marco
> 
> _____
>
> 
> 
> Marco van der Leij | Assistant Professor | CeNDEF | Amsterdam School of Economics | University of Amsterdam
> | Valckenierstraat 65-67, 1018 XE Amsterdam | T  +31 20 525 7356 | E [log in to unmask] | www.uva.nl |
> www.uva.nl/profile/m.j.vanderleij | Available on Mon, Wed, Fri
> 
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