Maria Ioannidou

Maria Ioannidou is a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Dynamic Uncertainty, where her work applies stochastic optimisation to the design and analysis of carbon markets and emissions reduction mechanisms. She holds a PhD in Mathematics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Department of Mathematics), where her doctoral research developed optimisation frameworks for resource allocation problems under stochastic demand and price uncertainty, with applications to markets in which tradeable permits are the primary regulatory instrument.

Following her doctorate, Ioannidou directed her work specifically toward emissions trading systems — modelling the carbon permit price as a controlled stochastic process whose dynamics depend on the aggregate emissions trajectory of regulated entities, the rate of permit issuance set by the regulator, and the strategic behaviour of market participants. Her research characterised equilibrium permit price dynamics under various cap-and-trade design rules, and derived optimal abatement investment strategies for firms operating under price uncertainty and banking restrictions.

At IADU, she models carbon market mechanisms as stochastic control problems in which the regulator faces a dynamic optimisation — choosing permit supply paths, price floors, and banking rules to minimise total abatement cost subject to an emissions reduction target met with a specified probability. Her work informs the Institute's advisory capacity on the quantitative design of sovereign climate policy instruments and the pricing of carbon-linked obligations.