Least squares method is not appropriate for estimating class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0378437116304551&_mathId=si63.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0378437116304551&_rdoc=1&_issn=03784371&md5=44be2b539ba87f104e9f0d53ed05bdf5">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="14" width="9" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0378437116304551-si63.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> of Barabási–Albert graphs.
A modified version of Clauset et al. (2009) is more preferable for estimation.
Simulated graphs show that exponent is not the theoretical class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0378437116304551&_mathId=si64.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0378437116304551&_rdoc=1&_issn=03784371&md5=ad32e01cf5125f1d3c4c81128b63c604">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="14" width="40" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0378437116304551-si64.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> for small graphs.
Value of class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0378437116304551&_mathId=si63.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0378437116304551&_rdoc=1&_issn=03784371&md5=44be2b539ba87f104e9f0d53ed05bdf5">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="14" width="9" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0378437116304551-si63.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> is also dependent on number of edges added, class="mathmlsrc">class="formulatext stixSupport mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0378437116304551&_mathId=si21.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0378437116304551&_rdoc=1&_issn=03784371&md5=c7e82b1375e888385c12dfdbc76f3214" title="Click to view the MathML source">mclass="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode">, for small graphs.
Smaller value of m results in larger value of class="mathmlsrc">title="View the MathML source" class="mathImg" data-mathURL="/science?_ob=MathURL&_method=retrieve&_eid=1-s2.0-S0378437116304551&_mathId=si63.gif&_user=111111111&_pii=S0378437116304551&_rdoc=1&_issn=03784371&md5=44be2b539ba87f104e9f0d53ed05bdf5">class="imgLazyJSB inlineImage" height="14" width="9" alt="View the MathML source" style="margin-top: -5px; vertical-align: middle" title="View the MathML source" src="/sd/grey_pxl.gif" data-inlimgeid="1-s2.0-S0378437116304551-si63.gif">class="mathContainer hidden">class="mathCode"> for all graph sizes.