<b>Principal components in the discrimination of outliers: A study in simulation sample data corrected by Pearson's and Yates´s chi-square distance

Current study employs Monte Carlo simulation in the building of a significance test to indicate the principal components that best discriminate against outliers. Different sample sizes were generated by multivariate normal distribution with different numbers of variables and correlation structures. Corrections by chi-square distance of Pearson´s and Yates's were provided for each sample size. Pearson´s correlation test showed the best performance. By increasing the number of variables, significance probabilities in favor of hypothesis H0 were reduced. So that the proposed method could be illustrated, a multivariate time series was applied with regard to sales volume rates in the state of Minas Gerais, obtained in different market segments