宗教经济的市场理论预言，当政府既不支持法定宗教，也不对宗教选择进行限制时，就会存在一定数量的竞争性的宗教团体，其结果是公众宗教奉献的总体水平将会很高。此外，效率更高和更具独创性的宗教组织将日益兴盛而效率不高的组织将衰败。这一预言放到古罗马时期也完全有效。另一个发现则是，政府对那些有激情的当地宗教团体的担心和敌视导致了罗马的宗教迫害，不仅是对基督教徒和犹太教徒的迫害，还有对其他多神教信奉者的迫害。
The market theory of religious economies predicts that when the state neither supports an official religion nor effectively limits religious options，there will exist a number of competing religious groups with the consequence that the overall level of public religious commitment will be high. In addition，the more effective and innovative religious organizations will prosper and the less effective will decline. Applied to ancient Rome，these predictions are strongly supported. An additional finding is that Roman religious persecution was prompted by governmental fear of and antagonism towards all faiths that sustained intense，local congregations，which accounts for the persecution not only of Christians and Jews，but of several pagan faiths as well.
