Nobel Prize-winning physicist Giorgio Parisi on Tuesday called for new tax breaks to be brought in to encourage couples to have children and reverse Italy's declining birth rate.
"Italy is in a demographic trap," Parisi told a convention on paediatrics at the Accademia dei Lincei science academy, which he is president of.
"It is necessary to intervene, including via fiscal aid".
The 73-year-old also highlighted the difficult labour-market conditions young Italian people face, saying this contributes to the brain drain and low birth rates.
Italy's has a high number of young people who are Not in Employment, Eduction or Training (NEET) as well as high unemployment rates for young people who are active on the labour market.
Furthermore, most young people who are in work are in temporary jobs or work under contracts that give them little or no job security.
"The precarious nature of young people's contracts has spread like wildfire in Italy and this is a fundamental political problem," Parisi said.
"We have widespread, substantial and constant emigration from Italy of people with a high level of professionalism and the reason for this is clear to me, although perhaps not for everyone.
"A young couple wants to have economic security to be able to decide to have a child and this does not exist with precarious contracts".
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