| Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) have been developed for fitting social network data on both static and dynamic levels. However, the lack of large sample asymptotic properties makes it inadequate in assessing the goodness-of-fit of these ERGMs. Simulation-based goodness-of-fit plots were proposed by Hunter et al (2006), comparing the structured statistics of observed network with those of corresponding simulated networks. In this research, we propose an improved approach to assess the goodness of fit of ERGMs. Our method is shown to improve the existing graphical techniques. We also propose a simulation based test statistic with which the model comparison can be easily achieved.;Keywords: Social Networks, Exponential Random Graph Models, Goodness of fit. |
