My undergraduate degree is from Italy and is called ''
Economics and Commerce''.I had to choose some paths among other in economics,in business,etc in which you get a specialization.There are the core -compulsory modules commune for all and the path modules.Personally since I selected economics path I had to take among others 3 compulsory courses of Law (Constitutional Law, Private Law and Commercial Law) and 3 compulsory busin
ess courses (2 courses of Accounting and 1 of business administration).I have also one course in a foreign language and one in fundamental informatics.I still try to understand why was useful to take the last two!
Anyway, I agree that if you have taken courses not directly related to econ PhD it is not a signal in doing well in an econ PhD.But if you did well if these courses and you general profile is good it might be a signal in a sense that you are a multi talent person, or as it can be seen often in a LOR ''a take-charge individual who is able to develop and implement innovative plans and can produce impressive results in a wide variety of areas not only in the field of economics''.